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THE  JESUITS: 


ORIGIN  AND  ORDER,  MORALITY  AND  PRACTICES, 
SUPPRESSION  AND  RESTORATION. 


BY 

y 

ALEXANDER  DUFF,  D.D., 

ONE  OF  THE  FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND'S  MISSIONARIES,  CALCUTTA. 


FROM  THE  SECOND  EDINBURGH  EDITION. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PRESBYTERIAN  BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION. 

1845. 


NOTE  BY  THE  PUBLISHER. 


Towards  the  close  of  last  year,  the  Calcutta 
Missionaries,  of  all  denominations,  (except  those  of 
the  Church  of  England,)  united  in  projecting  a 
scheme  of  public  lectures  on  the  subject  of  Popery. 
In  the  furtherance  of  this  scheme,  which,  in  Cal- 
cutta, laboured  under  all  the  disadvantages  of  a 
novel  and  untried  experiment,  Dr.  Duff  and  his 
colleagues  of  the  Free  Church  Mission  took  an 
active  and  effective  part.  The  course  proposed 
extended  to  nine  lectures — embracing  as  many 
leading  topics  of  importance  in  the  Popish  contro- 
versy— and  distributed  among  as  many  separate 
lecturers.  Of  the  nine,  four  were  Free  Church 
Missionaries.  The  subject  which  it  fell  to  Dr. 
Duff's  lot  to  discuss  was  that  of  Jesuitism,  in  its 
rise,  progress,  and  objects  ;  and  the  following  is  the 
Lecture  which  he  prepared  and  delivered  on  the 
occasion.  Several  hundred  copies  were  printed  for 
local  distribution  in  Calcutta  and  its  neighbourhood  ; 
and  the  present  edition  is  a  reprint,  with  the  au- 
thor's permission,  for  circulation  at  home.  From 
the  immense  efforts  now  making  by  the  Jesuit  body, 


4  NOTE    BY    THE    PUBLISHER. 

in  all  parts  of  the  world,  to  propagate  the  noxious 
leaven  of  Popery — the  Antichrist  and  great 
Apostasy — the  subject  is  one  of  paramount  interest 
to  all  the  friends  of  Protestantism,  and  genuine, 
unadulterated,  evangelical  truth.  The  Jesuits,  in 
times  past,  have  proved  the  most  formidable  foes 
of  the  Reformation  ;  and  if  the  members  of  the 
Reformed  Churches  do  not  speedily  awake  to  a 
sense  of  the  impending  danger,  the  "bulwarks" 
and  the  "palaces"  of  Protestantism  may  soon  be 
sapped,  and  undermined,  and  levelled  in  the  dust. 

August,  1845. 


THE  JESUITS,  &e. 


It  has  often  been  a  subject  of  remark,  how  trivial, 
insignificant, and, in  ordinary  phraseology,  accidental 
incidents,  have  fixed  the  character  and  career  of  in- 
dividuals, extended  the  empire  of  the  sciences,  and 
permanently  affected  the  destinies  of  nations.  To 
the  circumstance  of  his  being  presented,  when  a 
student  at  college,  with  the  works  of  Pliny  and  Aris- 
totle, as  a  prize,  did  Adanson,  as  we  are  told,  owe 
the  impulse  which  diverted  his  mind  from  its  origi- 
nal bent,  and  earned  for  him  the  renown  of  being 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  naturalists  of  his  day. 
To  the  circumstance  of  his  happening,  when  a  boy, 
"  to  be  long  and  frequently  shut  up  in  a  room,  in 
which  there  was  nothing  but  a  clock — which,  there- 
fore, as  the  only  object  of  amusement,  he  occupied 
himself  in  examining" — did  Vaucanson  owe  the 
impulse  which  eventually  rendered  him  one  of  the 
most  celebrated  of  mechanicians.  It  was  the  cir- 
cumstance of  perusing  the  Iliad  that  communicated 
to  the  soul  of  Alexander  the  impulse  which  led  to 
his  heading  the  Macedonian  phalanx  on  the  banks 
of  the  Nile,  the  Euphrates,  and  the  Indus  ;  while  it 
was  the  perusal  of  his  life  which  stimulated  Charles 
of  Sweden  to  a  career  that  stamped  him  as  among 
the  first  of  warriors.  To  the  circumstance  of  his 
noticing  the  fall  of  an  apple  is  ordinarily  attributed 
the  hint  which  pointed  the  way  to  the  most  magni- 
1*  5 


6  THE   JESUITS. 

ficenl  of  modern  discoveries,  and  has  emblazoned 
the  name  of  Newton  as  the  most  refulgent  in  the 
whole  galaxy  of  science.  To  a  most  trivial,  and  ap- 
parently accidental  circumstance  did  Scotland,  once 
trodden  under  the  iron  hoof  of  tyranny,  owe  its 
freedom  and  independence.  The  patriot  Bruce,  suc- 
cessively baffled  in  every  attempt,  lay  down  at  night 
in  a  barn,  seeking  relief  from  the  pains  of  disaster 
and  the  threatenings  of  despair.  In  the  morning, 
we  are  told,  while  "  still  reclining  on  his  pillow  of 
straw,  he  beheld  a  spider  climbing  up  the  beam 
of  the  roof.  The  insect  fell  to  the  ground."  Twelve 
times  was  the  attempt  successively  renewed — twelve 
times  did  it  utterly  fail.  Its  thirteenth  essay,  how- 
ever, was  crowned  with  complete  success — it  gained 
the  summit  of  the  barn ;  when  the  king,  starting 
from  his  couch,  exclaimed:  "This  despicable  in- 
sect has  taught  me  perseverance  :  I  will  follow  its 
example.  Have  I  not  been  twelve  times  defeated 
by  the  enemy's  force  ? — on  one  fight  more  hangs 
the  independence  of  my  country."  In  a  few  days 
was  fought  the  ever-memorable  battle  of  Bannock- 
burn,  and  all  Scotland  was  free.  And,  finally,  it  is 
to  the  slight  and  insignificant,  and  apparently  acci- 
dental, circumstance  of  a  soldier  being  wounded, 
three  centuries  ago,  at  an  ordinary  siege  in  Spain, 
that  the  world  has  been  indebted  for  an  institute  be- 
fore which  kings  and  nations  have  bowed  the  knee 
— an  institute  which,  with  the  "dolorous  regions'' 
of  California  on  the  west,  and  the  multitudinous 
isles  of  Japan  on  the  east,  as  its  outposts,  has  con- 
verted "  shuddering  Europe"  into  one  vast  battle- 
field for  the  marshalled  hosts  of  error  and  of  truth. 


THE    JESUITS. 


THE  ORIGIN  AND  RISE  OF  THE  JESUITS. 

In  1521,  Don  Inigo  Lopez  de  Ricalde,  the 
youngest  son  of  the  noble  house  of  Loyola,  was  se- 
verely wounded  in  both  legs  in  the  defence  of  Pam- 
peluna  against  the  French.  Fired  with  the  spirit 
of  ancient  chivalry,  he  had  panted  after  knightly 
honours  and  renown.  Excited  by  the  vivid  pictures 
of  legendary  romance,  his  mind  was  filled  with  airy 
dreams  of  hazardous  adventure  and  feats  of  daring 
valour — 


Races  and  games, 


Or  tilting  furniture,  emblazoned  shields, 
Impresses  quaint,  caparisons  and  steeds, 
Bosses  and  tinsel  trappings,  gorgeous  knights 
At  joust  and  tournament." 

But  stretched  on  a  bed  of  languishment,  with  shat- 
tered limbs,  and  little  hope  of  their  perfect  recovery, 
how  are  these  gorgeous  phantasms  to  be  grasped 
and  realized  ?  To  these,  alas  !  he  must  now  bid 
farewell — farewell  for  ever.  Does  he  then  return 
to  a  calm  composure  of  mind,  resolved  to  content 
himself  with  the  sober  realities  of  life  ?  No.  Racked 
by  disappointment  and  agitated  by  suffering,  as 
he  lay  doomed  to  listless  and  pining  inactivity  on 
his  couch,  he  happened  to  have  had  put  into  his 
hands  a  volume  of  the  Lives  of  the  Saints  ;  whether 
by  accident  or  design,  history  telleth  not.  But,  be 
that  as  it  may,  the  effect  on  his  excitable  and  chival- 
rous spirit  was,  in  its  instantaneousness  and  power, 
almost  magical.  The  perusal  of  that  work  suddenly 
changed  the  entire  current  of  his  soul.  "  Behold," 
says  his  biographer,  Vieyra,  "behold  the  import- 
ance of  reading  good  books.  If  it  had  been  a  book 
of  knight-errantry,  Ignacio  would  have  become  a 
great  knight-errant ;  it  was  the  Lives  of  the  Saints, 


8  THE   JESUITS. 

and  Ignacio  became  a  great  saint.  If  he  had  read 
about  knights,  he  might  have  proved  a  knight  of  the 
burning  sword  ;  he  read  about  saints,  and  proved  a 
saint  of  the  burning  torch."  From  that  hour  the 
chivalry  of  romance  and  worldly  adventure  is  wholly 
and  for  ever  abandoned  for  the  chivalry  of  spiritual 
crusade  and  "fantastic  asceticism."  As  ordinary 
knights  were  wont  to  "  devote  themselves  and  con- 
secrate the  valour  of  their  arms  to  their  lady  love," 
he  "  hung  up  arms  and  armour  before  an  image  of 
the  Virgin,"  determined  to  become  "knight  of  the 
Virgin  Mary."  As  other  spiritual  knight-errants 
had  earned  for  themselves  immortal  renown  by  their 
self-imposed  penances,  he  resolves  to  outstrip  all  his 
predecessors  in  austerity  and  self-denial.  Accord- 
ingly, casting  aside  his  knightly  dress,  and  arraying 
himself  in  a  hermit's  homely  garb,  he  withdraws 
from  the  abodes  of  luxurious  refinement  and  the 
endearments  of  social  intercourse.  In  cells  and 
lonely  caverns  he  enters  on  a  course  of  the  severest 
mortification,  letting  his  hair  and  nails  grow  like 
those  of  the  doomed  and  fated  Nebuchadnezzar — 
maintaining  midnight  vigils — remaining  seven  hours 
daily  on  his  bare  knees — often  fasting  for  days  to- 
gether, and  on  one  occasion  from  Sabbath  to  Sabbath 
— scourging  himself  regularly  thrice  a  day,  and  caus- 
ing the  gloomy  cloisters  to  resound  with  the  sighs 
and  groans  of  heartfelt  agony. 

From  that  time,  also,  he  began,  in  his  turbid  and 
troubled  fancy,  to  enjoy  all  manner  of  visions, 
raptures,  and  ecstasies.  Now,  he  is  in  rapt  con- 
templation of  two  immense  camps — "the  one  at 
Jerusalem,  the  other  at  Babylon — Christ's  and 
Satan's.  On  that  side  all  the  good,  on  this  side 
all  the  bad,  both  armed  and  ready  for  mutual  com- 
bat"— while  he  himself  figures  as  a  chosen  warrior 
in  the  army  01  the  faithful.     Again,  he  is  satisfied 


THE    JESUITS.  9 

that  "  he  beholds  at  one  time  Christ,  and  at  another 
the  Virgin,  with  his  bodily  eyes."  Standing  on  the 
steps  of  the  Church  of  St.  Dominic  at  Manressa, 
"  he  wept  aloud,  because  he  beheld  the  mystery  of 
the  Trinity  visibly  revealed  to  him  at  that  moment;" 
while  the  mystery  of  creation  suddenly  flashed  upon 
him  in  mystic  symbols.  In  the  host  he  fancied 
that  he  "beheld  him  who  was  God  and  man." 
On  the  banks  of  the  Llobregat  he  "  sat  down,  and 
bent  his  eyes  on  the  deep  stream  before  him  ;  when 
suddenly  he  felt  himself  in  an  ecstasy,  wherein  the 
mysteries  of  faith  were  visibly  revealed  to  him.  He 
rose  up,  he  thought,  another  man."*  Favoured 
with  such  immediate  inspirations  and  inward  fanta- 
sies, the  light  of  Scripture  or  revelation  is  rejected 
as  altogether  unnecessary.  As  a.  prime  favourite 
of  Heaven,  he  is  privileged  to  hold  direct  communion 
with  the  invisible  world  and  its  inhabitants — privi- 
leged to  ascend  beyond  the  pure  empyrean  and 
mingle  with  the  glories  of  the  eternal  regions  ;  why, 
then,  should  he  not  spurn  away  from  him  the  aids 
of  apostles  and  prophets,  who  wrote  only  as  they 
were  commissioned  for  the  humble  denizens  of  this 
lower  mundane  sphere  ? 

After  journeying  to  Jerusalem  on  a  fruitless  ex- 
pedition against  the  Infidels,  and  traversing,  amid 
incredible  hardships,  different  kingdoms  of  Europe, 
as  a  ragged,  emaciated  mendicant,  he  at  length  re- 
tired to  Paris.  There  he  soon  gathered  around  him 
a  small  but  enthusiastic  body  of  converts  and  fol- 
lowers. They  resolved  to  constitute  themselves  into 
a  religious  society.  But  under  what  designation 
are  they  to  be  known  ?  Captivated  with  the  thought 
of  making  war,  as  soldiers,  against  the  prince  of 
darkness,  they  finally  determined,  in  accordance 
with  Loyola's  old  military  propensities,  to  call  them- 
*  See  "  Ranke  on  the  Popes." 


10  THE    JESUITS. 

selves  "  The  Company  of  Jesus,  just  like  a  com- 
pany of  soldiers,  who  bear  the  name  of  their  captain 
— a  company,  cohort,  or  century,  as  it  were,  en- 
gaged to  do  battle  against  spiritual  enemies."  But 
such  an  organized  society  must  have  laws.  Doubt- 
less. But  whence  are  they  to  proceed?  Whence, 
in  such  a  case,  but  from  the  fountain-head  of  all 
law  ?  Loyola  had  already  his  visions  of  the  celestial 
world  ;  before  the  altar  of  the  church  in  Barcelona, 
the  Lady  Roselli  saw  him  "  with  a  radiant  illumi- 
nation round  his  head."  Who,  then,  need  be  sur- 
prised at  the  solemn  averment  of  his  disciples,  "  that 
he  was  miraculously  told  from  Heaven  to  form  his 
order,  and  instructed  fully  in  a  supernatural  man- 
ner how  to  do  it  ?" 

After  various  abortive  attempts,  Loyola  at  length 
succeeded,  in  1540,  in  obtaining  from  Paul  III.  a 
bull  of  constitution  for  his  new  order.  This  bull 
was  fettered  at  first  with  certain  unpalatable  re- 
strictions. The  Pope,  however,  soon  learned  to 
estimate  aright  the  prodigious  importance  of  such  a 
fraternity.  Moreover,  the  offer,  over  and  above  the 
three  usual  vows  of  poverty,  chastity,  and  monastic 
obedience,  to  come  under  a  fourth  vow,  of  unlimited 
submission,  of  unconditional  obedience  to  the  Pope 
— whose  absolute  supremacy  and  infallibility  the 
members  of  the  new  Society  were  sworn,  at  all 
hazards,  to  maintain ;  and  whose  commands  to  go 
wheresoever,  whensoever,  and  on  what  errand  so- 
ever he  pleased,  they  were  bound,  without  question 
or  hesitation,  instantly  to  obey  ;  and  all  this  under  a 
solemn  pledge,  never  and  nowhere  to  require  pe- 
cuniary aid  or  support  from  the  See  of  Rome — such 
an  offer,  at  such  a  desperate  crisis  of  Papal  affairs, 
proved  irresistible.  The  original  bull  of  confirma- 
tion was  accordingly  renewed  in  1543,  unembar- 
rassed by  any  limitations  or  conditions  whatsoever. 


THE   JESUITS.  11 

And  to  render  the  deed  still  more  memorable  and 
impressive,  the  Pope  had  two  medals  struck,  on  one 
of  which,  in  allusion  to  the  important  services 
which  he  expected  from  the  Society,  was  inscribed, 
"  The  gates  of  heaven  opened  !"  and  on  the  other, 
"  The  security  of  the  Roman  people." 

As  the  Society  was  essentially  military  and  des- 
potic in  its  constitution,  the  next  important  step 
was  to  elect  a  general  or  commander-in-chief,  who, 
as  stated  by  the  Society  itself,  in  the  first  draft  of 
the  constitution  which  they  presented  to  the  Pope, 
"should  dispense  grades  and  offices  as  to  him 
should  seem  fit ;  project  the  plan  of  the  constitution 
for  the  order,  with  the  advice  and  assistance  of  the 
members ;  and  in  all  other  matters  exercise  sole 
and  undivided  command  :  in  him  should  Christ  be 
honoured  (let  this  blasphemy  be  noted)  as  present 
in  his  person!"  The  choice,  as  might  readily  be 
anticipated,  fell  on  the  founder,  Loyola,  who,  ac- 
cording to  the  express  words  of  one  of  the  electors, 
"had  begotten  them  all  in  Christ,  and  fed  them 
with  his  milk."  Another  reason  assigned  by  a 
Jesuit  writer  is  too  characteristic  to  be  omitted  here. 
"  Since  Peter,"  says  he,  "  had  more  zeal  than  the 
rest  of  the  apostles,  when  he  struck  the  servant  of 
the  high  priest,  it  is  for  this  reason,  among  others, 
we  may  conceive,  that  the  sovereign  priesthood  was 
committed  to  him  by  Christ ;  and,  if  the  comparison 
be  admissible,  we  may  affirm  that  Ignatius  was 
chosen  to  be  general  of  our  order  because  he  would 
kill  a  Moor  who  had  blasphemed." 

The  Society  having  obtained  the  Papal  sanction, 
and  elected  its  general,  the  next  grand  step  was  to 
frame  its  constitution.  This  task  was  executed  by 
Loyola  with  such  consummate  ability,  as  to  justify 
the  eulogium  of  Pasquier,  who  pronounced  him 
"one  of  the  most   subtile   and   skilful   politicians 


12  THE   JESUITS. 

which  his  age  produced."  For  two  hundred  years, 
the  mysterious  volume  was  systematically  concealed 
from  the  world  at  large ;  while  its  contents  were 
only  gradually  unfolded,  and  that,  too,  after  full 
proof  of  their  trustworthiness  and  repeated  oaths  of 
secrecy,  even  to  the  members  of  the  Society ;  yea, 
some  rules  there  were  of  which  none  but  the  gene- 
ral and  superiors  were  ever  permitted  to  know  any 
thing  at  all.  One  of  the  assistants  of  the  order,  in 
a  letter  from  Rome,  towards  the  middle  of  last  cen- 
tury, thus  writes  :  "  It  is  only  since  my  arrival  here 
that  I  understand  any  thing  of  the  nature  of  our 
Society.  Its  government  is  a  separate  science,  of 
which  the  provincials  themselves  know  nothing.  It 
is  necessary  to  be  in  the  post  which  I  now  occupy, 
to  begin  to  comprehend  it." 

At  length,  however,  in  an  evil  hour  for  the  So- 
ciety, but  a  providential  one  for  the  cause  of  humanity 
and  truth,  their  long  secreted  statute  book  was 
dragged  to  light.  This  occurred  in  the  course  of 
the  celebrated  suit  of  Lionci  and  La  Valette,  in 
France,  in  17(31. 

From  these  authentic  records  every  thing  essen- 
tial may  now  be  learned  respecting  the  organiza- 
tion, government,  and  general  principles  of  the 
institute.  In  order  to  invest  these  writh  infallible 
authority,  the  Jesuits  did  not  scruple  to  allege  "that 
God  himself  dictated  the  formation  of  their  Society;" 
that  "  He  and  the  blessed  Virgin  inspired  its  plans, 
rules,  and  privileges,  in  miraculous  revelations."  In 
order  to  allure  numbers  to  join  their  ranks,  they 
positively  declared  that  "  C4od  had  granted  to  every 
member  of  the  Society,  who  might  join  it  in  the 
three  first  centuries,  the  privilege  of  escaping 
damnation;  and  that  whoever  should  die  in  com- 
munion with  the  Society  should  obtain  everlasting 
felicity."     Under  the  influence  of  such  nattering 


THE    JESUITS.  13 

attractions,  the  increase  of  the  Society,  like  that  of  a 
comet  approaching  its  perihelion,  was  more  than 
ordinarily  rapid.  In  little  more  than  half  a  century 
after  its  commencement,  its  full  sworn  members  ex- 
ceeded ten  thousand.  A  century  later  still,  it  could 
reckon  twenty  thousand  members,  and  upwards  of 
six  hundred  colleges. 

All  this  will  appear  the  more  surprising-,  when 
we  reflect  on  the  dreadful  ordeal  of  probation  through 
which  every  candidate  must  pass  ere  he  could 
obtain  the  privilege  of  full  membership.  Talk  of 
drilling  and  discipline  ! — why,  the  drilling  and  the 
discipline  which  gave  to  Alexander  the  men  that 
marched  in  triumph  from  Macedon  to  the  Indus;  to 
Caesar,  the  men  that  marched  in  triumph  from  Rome 
to  the  wilds  of  Caledonia ;  to  Hannibal,  the  men 
that  marched  in  triumph  from  Carthage  to  Rome ; 
to  Napoleon,  the  men  whose  achievements  surpassed 
in  brilliancy  the  united  glories  of  the  soldiers  of 
Macedon,  of  Carthage,  and  of  Rome  ;  and  to  Wel- 
lington, the  men  who  smote  into  the  dust  the  very 
flower  of  Napoleon's  chivalry ; — why,  the  drilling 
and  the  discipline  of  all  of  these  combined,  cannot, 
in  point  of  stern,  rigid,  and  protracted  severity,  for 
a  moment  be  compared  to  the  drilling  and  discipline 
which  fitted  and  moulded  men  for  becoming  full 
members  of  the  militant  institute  of  the  Jesuits  ! 

Into  details  we  cannot  enter  ;  but  a  few  leading 
particulars  we  must  supply  from  the  most  authorita- 
tive of  all  sources — the  book  of  their  own  constitu- 
tions. 

2 


14  THE    JESUITS. 


THE   ORDER    OF    THE   JESUITS— ITS    ORGANI- 
ZATION AND  GOVERNMENT. 

The  whole  world,  which  is  regarded  by  the  ge- 
neral as  his  one  and  undivided  empire,  is  parcelled 
out  into  provinces ;  at  the  head  of  which  is  a  pro- 
vincial, subordinate  to  the  general  central  head. 
Throughout  the  provinces  are  colleges  and  novitiates, 
or  houses  of  probation  and  residence ;  at  the  head 
of  which  are  rectors,  prefects,  or  superiors  ;  all 
subordinate  directly,  or  through  the  provincials,  to 
the  general,  who  is  the  sole  mainspring  and  moving 
power  of  the  stupendous  mechanism,  throughout 
all  its  countless  parts  and  wide-spreading  ramifica- 
tions. 

The  whole  Society  may  be  divided  into  four 
classes — the  novices,  the  scholars,  the  coadjutors, 
and  the  professed  or  full  members.  The  age  of 
fourteen  is  ordinarily  the  earliest  for  admission  as 
a  novice  ;  and  the  asfe  of  thirty-three  the  earliest  for 
the  attainment  of  full  or  professed  membership. 

When  a  candidate  for  admission  presents  himself, 
he  is  rigidly  examined.  If  deemed  unfit,  he  is  in- 
stantly dismissed.  If  his  fitness  appear  probable, 
he  is  received  into  "  the  house  of  primary  proba- 
tion." A  fresh  scrutiny  is  then  instituted  into  his 
rank,  temper,  and  condition — his  talents,  possessions, 
and  probable  utility — natural  abilities  being  allowed 
"to  make  ample  atonement  for  poverty,  and  wealth 
for  lack  of  talent."  Every  communication  with  the 
servants  or  strangers,  either  by  word  or  letter,  is 
expressly  forbidden.  A  brief  compendium  or  sum- 
mary of  general  rules  is  then  submitted  to  his 
deliberation.  In  subsequent  examinations,  "  every 
circumstance  is  drawn  from  him  connected  with  his 
birth,  his  family,  and  connections.     Strict  inquiry 


THE   JESUITS.  15 

is  made  touching  the  marriage  or  celibacy  of  a 
brother  or  sister — their  state  and  manner  of  life  ; 
but,  above  all,  whether  he  be  bound  himself  by  a 
promise  of  marriage."  Again,  "  the  health  and 
perfection  of  the  candidate's  body  must,  by  medical 
inspection,  be  ascertained.  The  manner  in  which 
his  life  has  been  spent  from  his  youth,  the  bent  of 
his  inclinations,  the  substance  of  his  prayers,  the 
fervour  of  his  devotions — all  must  be  revealed, 
without  reserve,  at  the  bidding  of  the  scrutinizing 
inquirer."  The  applicant  must  next  be  asked, 
"  whether  he  has  ever  held,  or  still  continues  to  hold, 
any  opinions  or  ideas  differing  from  those  which 
are  maintained  by  the  Church,  and  approved  by  her 
doctors ;  for  novel  opinions  cannot  be  tolerated." 
And  "in  every  scruple  or  spiritual  difficulty  which 
may  arise,  he  must  engage  to  abandon  his  own  de- 
cision." If  he  has  property,  he  must  next  declare 
his  resolution  of  renouncing  it,  and  giving  it  wholly 
"to  the  pooi^,  (i.  e.,  in  reality  to  'the  Society  of 
Jesuits,  who  are  mendicants  for  that  purpose,') 
without  a  hope  of  regaining  it  at  any  time."  And 
that  "  his  better  example  may  shine  before  men,  he 
must  put  away  all  strong  affection  for  his  parents, 
and  refrain  from  the  unsuitable  desire  of  a  bountiful 
distribution  towards  them,  arising  from  such  a  dis- 
advantageous affection,  that  the  precept  of  the  gos- 
pel may  be  followed  more  perfectly,  which  says 
not,  '  Give  to  your  relations,'  but,  '  Give  to  the  poor.' 
Thus  effectually  cut  off  from  all  access  to  his  parents, 
and  even  from  a  useless  remembrance  of  them,  he 
may  proceed  more  surely  in  his  course  of  hopeful 
vocation."  To  render  his  seclusion  more  complete, 
the  candidate  is  next  "  interdicted  from  verbal  or 
written  communication  with  his  family  or  friends," 
unless  under  special  permission  from  the  superior. 
He  must  also  be  "  satisfied  that  all  letters  written 


16  THE   JESUITS. 

and  received  by  him,  as  long  as  he  remains  in  the 
house,  should  be  opened,  read,  and  delivered  up  for 
that  purpose,  to  the  person  appointed  to  examine 
him."  His  "  actions,  errors,  and  deficiencies,  are 
always  closely  watched,  and  reported  to  the  supe- 
rior by  any  one  who  has  observed  or  discovered 
them."  A  general  confession  of  the  "  whole  past 
life  must  be  made,  and  repeated  every  six  months, 
to  some  Jesuit  priest,  who  may  be  deputed  by  the 
superior  to  receive  it." 

The  course  of  primary  probation  being  at  length 
concluded,  the  candidate  enters  the  house  of  second 
probation,  where  he  joins  the  senior  novices.  Here, 
on  his  entrance,  six  principal  exercises  or  experi- 
ments await  him.  First,  He  must  devote  a  month 
to  self-examination,  confession,  and  meditation. 
Second,  He  must  serve  for  another  month  "  in  one 
or  more  of  the  hospitals,  by  ministering  to  the  sick, 
in  proof  of  increasing  humility."  Third,  He 
"must  wander  for  another  month,  without  money, 
begging  from  door  to  door,  that  he  may  be  accus- 
tomed to  inconvenience  in  eating  and  sleeping." 
Fourth,  He  "must  submit  to  be  employed  in  the 
most  servile  offices  of  the  house  into  which  he  has 
entered."  Fifth,  He  must  exhibit  his  capacity  for 
giving  instruction  to  boys  and  untaught  elders. 
Sixth,  He  must  try  his  gift  in  preaching  and 
hearing  confessions. 

As  yet,  while  thus  only  "  fulfilling  his  several 
trials  of  fitness,  he  may  not  presume  to  say  that  he 
is  a  member  of  the  Society.  If  his  discharge  of 
these  six  experiments  be  not  satisfactory,  he  is 
summarily  dismissed  ;  if  otherwise,  he  is  encou- 
raged to  wait  in  patient  expectation — learning,  by 
further  exercises,  to  subordinate  his  mind  and  will, 
in  all  things,  in  perfect  humility  and  obedience,  to 
the  dictum  of  the  general  or  superior.     If  his  pro- 


THE   JESUITS.  17 

gress  be  satisfactory,  the  three  simple  vows  are 
administered  at  the  end  of  two  years  ;  which  vows, 
with  slight  and  suitable  modifications,  must  ever 
after  be  renewed  twice  every  year." 

The  novitiate  being  at  length  terminated,  the 
candidate,  who  has  acquitted  himself  with  credit  in 
the  houses  of  probation,  is  admitted  to  additional 
instruction  in  the  mysteries  of  the  institute  in  one 
or  other  of  the  colleges  or  universities,  which  are 
richly  endowed  by  the  voluntary  liberality  of  the 
superstitiously  devout.  He  now  becomes  one  of 
the  grade  or  class  of  scholars.  The  qualities  to  be 
"desired  and  commended  in  scholars  are  acuteness 
of  talent,  brilliancy  of  example,  and  soundness  of 
body.  They  are  to  be  chosen  men,  picked  from 
the  flower  of  the  troop ;  and  the  general  has  abso- 
lute power  in  admitting  or  dismissing  them,  accord- 
ing to  his  expectations  of  their  utility  in  promoting 
the  designs  of  the  institute."  If  they  have  satis- 
factorily passed  the  time  and  course  of  their  studies, 
they  become  approved  scholars,  and  must  submit 
to  new  varieties  of  trial  and  probation. 

The  trial  of  their  perfections,  as  approved  scho- 
lars, being  completed,  they  are  admitted  into  the 
third  class,  which  is  that  of  coadjutors,  temporal 
and  spiritual.  Their  trials,  which  are  multiform, 
protracted,  and  severe,  being  finished,  they  are  at 
last  admitted  into  the  fourth  class,  which,  by  way 
of  eminence,  is  distinguished  as  the  "Professed 
Society.''''  These  take  upon  them  the  fourth  or 
peculiar  vow,  which  binds  them  to  proceed,  without 
question  or  murmur,  on  the  Papal  missions,  to  any 
region  of  the  earth.  Their  probations  are  even 
"  more  strict  and  of  longer  duration  than  those  of 
the  preceding  classes."  Schedules  or  registers  are 
carefully  kept  throughout,  in  which  the  minutest 
particulars  are  recorded,  for  the  inspection  of  the 
2* 


18  THE    JESUITS. 

superior,  and  for  transmission  to  the  general ;  who 
has  thus  before  him,  at  one  view,  a  complete  chart 
or  map  of  the  character,  talents,  and  special  qualifi- 
cations of  every  candidate  and  member  of  the  Society, 
from  the  earliest  period  of  the  novitiate  to  the  con- 
clusion of  a  finished  profession. 

Here,  in  passing,  we  may  note  a  characteristic 
circumstance.  One  of  the  earliest  and  most  solemn 
vows  taken,  is  that  of  perpetual  poverty.  But  what 
if,  in  consequence  of  the  death  of  friends  or  rela- 
tions, some  property  should  fall  to  be  inherited  by 
one  who  had  taken  the  vow  of  utter  renunciation 
of  the  world — is  he  precluded  from  asserting  his 
lawful  claims  ?  Why,  then,  the  superior  is  armed 
with  power  temporarily  to  release  him  from  the 
solemn  and  unconditional  obligation  of  the  vow. 
Thus  liberated,  and,  by  a  Jesuit  fiction,  regarded 
for  a  definite  season  as  a  merely  secular  person,  he 
is  sent  forth  swiftly  to  secure  property,  "as  an  eagle 
to  the  prey.  But  as  the  lesser  bird,  which  decoys 
to  the  snare  of  the  fowler,  can  only  enjoy  the 
liberty  which  is  allowed  by  the  length  of  his  string 
and  the  will  of  his  master,  so  must  the  richly-laden 
Jesuit  return  at  the  bidding  of  his  general;  and 
bound  up  once  more  by  his  former  vow  of  renounc- 
ing the  things  of  this  world,  he  is  quickly  relieved 
of  his  acquired  wealth,  which  is  safely  deposited 
in  the  craving  and  capacious  coffers  of  the  Society." 

But  the  grand  principle  which  pervades,  ani- 
mates, and  cements  into  one  firm  and  continuous 
chain  the  entire  course  of  probationary  exercises, 
is  the  reiterated,  the  incessant,  the  perpetual  incul- 
cation of  a  blind,  implicit,  unquestioning  obedience 
to  the  monarchical  general  of  the  order,  or  to  the 
superior  acting  in  his  stead  or  name.  In  every 
conceivable  variety  of  shape  and  form,  his  will  is 
declared  to  be  law,  sole  and  supreme  law — his  wilJ 


THE    JESUITS.  19 

is  virtually  that  of  omnipotence.  To  him  must  the 
inclinations,  the  reason,  and  the  conscience,  of 
every  member  be  unconditionally  surrendered. 
Does  any  one  doubt  the  possibility  of  a  despotism 
so  absolute  ?  Then  hear  the  express  words  of  the 
constitutions.  There  the  novice  is  exhorted  to 
"devote  himself  to  the  service  of  God,  leaving  the 
care  of  all  other  things  to  his  superior,  ivho  doubtless 
(mark  these  words)  holds  the  place  of  Christ  our 
Lord."  But  this  is  a  brief  and  ambiguous  expres- 
sion, you  will  say.  Very  good.  Then,  here  is 
another:  Let  the  novices  "desire  with  perfect  con- 
currence to  be  guided  by  them,  (their  superiors;) 
and  not  wishing  to  be  led  by  their  own  judgment, 
except  it  agrees  with  that  of  those  who  are  to  them 
instead  of  Christ  our  Lord." 

Is  this  not  explicit  enough  ?  Well,  here  is  an- 
other injunction  :  "  It  is  especially  conducive  to 
advancement,  nay,  even  necessary,  that  all  yield 
tin mselees  to  perfect  obedience,  regarding  the  su- 
perior (he  he  who  he  may)  as  Christ  the  Lord,  and 
submitting  to  him  with  inward  reverence  and  affec- 
tion. Let  them  obey  not  only  in  the  outward  per- 
formance of  what  he  enjoins,  entirely,  promptly, 
resolutely,  and  with  all  due  humility,  without  ex- 
cuses or  murmurs,  even  though  he  order  things 
hard  to  be  done,  and  repugnant  to  their  own  sense ; 
hut  let  them  also  strive  to  acquire  perfect  resigna- 
tion and  denial  of  their  own  will  and  judgment  to 
that  which  the  superior  wills  and  judges  (where  sin 
is  not  perceived) — the  will  and  judgment  of  the  su- 
perior being  set  before  them  as  the  rule  of  their 
will  and  judgment." 

Is  any  further  confirmation  wanted?  Then, 
surely,  it  is  in  these  words :  "  Let  every  one  per- 
suade himself  that  they  who  live  under  obedience, 
should  permit  themselves  to  be  moved  and  directed, 


20  THE    JESUITS. 

under  divine  Providence,  by  their  superiors  just  as 
if  (mark  the  similes,)  just  as  if  they  were  a  corpse, 
which  allows  itself  to  be  moved  and  handled  in  any 
way  ;  or  as  the  staff  of  an  old  man,  which  serves 
him  wherever  or  in  whatever  thing  he  who  holds 
it  in  his  hand  pleases  to  use  iV — "persuading 
themselves  that  every  thing  is  just,  suppressing 
every  repugnant  thought  and  judgment  of  their 
own,  in  a  certain  obedience,"  and  "  promptly  at- 
tending to  their  voice,  just  as  if  it  proceeded  from 
Christ  our  Lord."  And,  to  render  assurance  doubly 
sure,  every  disciple  is  again  and  again  bound  by 
solemn  oath  to  " obey  superiors,"  and  "to  under- 
stand all  things  according  to  the  constitutions  of  the 
Society,"  the  oaths  of  submission  and  obedience 
usually  commencing  in  this  style  :  "  I,  N.  B.,  make 
profession,  and  promise  Almighty  God,  before  his 
virgin  mother,  and  before  all  the  heavenly  host,  and 
before  all  by-standers,  and  you,  reverend  father, 
general  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  holding  the  place 
of  God,  and  your  successors,  reverend  father,  vice- 
general  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  holding  the  place 
God"  &c.  And  lest  any  one  might  suppose 
at  the  formed  introduction  of  any  apparently  ex- 
ceptionary  clauses  respecting  the  non-obligation  of 
committing  sin  by  way  of  obedience,  formed  any 
real  or  substantial  limitation,  it  is  expressly  added, 
by  way  of  explanation,  that  the  constitutions  of  the 
Society  do  not  "involve  an  obligation  to  commit  sin, 
mortal  or  venial;*  unless  (mark  the  impious  excep- 

*  For  all  the  quotations  given  in  this  epitomized  account  of 
the  order  of  the  Jesuits,  the  reader  is  referred  to  two  standard 
and  authoritative  works: — 1st,  Constitutiones  Societatis  Jesu, 
Anno  1558,  Romae,  in  eedibus  Societatis  Jesu,  1558.  Be- 
•printed  from  the  original  edition,  &c,  &c,  London,  183S; 
and,  2d,  The  preliminary  Sketch  prefixed  to  a  work  entitled 
*'  The  Principles  of  the  Jesuits,  developed  in  a  Collection  of 
Extracts  from  their  Writings,  London,  1839." 


f 

thi 


THE   JESUITS.  21 

tion)  the  superior  command  them  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  or  in  virtue  of  holy  obedience ; 
which  shall  be  done  in  those  cases  or  persons 
wherein  it  shall  be  judged  that  it  will  greatly  con- 
duce to  the  particular  good  of  each,  or  to  the  general 
advantage."  What  does  this  mean  ?  Neither  more 
nor  less  than  this,  that  sins  against  God,  acts  con- 
trary to  his  revealed  word,  transgressions  of  his 
pure  and  holy  law — provided  only  they  benefit  the 
individual  or  the  Society — may  be,  yea,  must  be  com- 
mitted, ?y*the  superior  enjoins  them  !  What  is  this, 
but  setting  himself  in  the  place  of  God,  yea,  exalt- 
ing himself  above  God  ?  For,  surely,  that  authority 
which  can  annul,  repeal,  supersede,  or  abrogate  a 
law,  must  be  supreme  and  paramount  above  all 
other  authorities. 

And  lest  any  one,  in  the  plenitude  of  his  sceptical 
liberality  or  liberal  scepticism,  should  suppose,  or 
pretend  to  suppose,  that  we  had  misunderstood  or 
overstrained  the  meaning  of  these  clear  declarations, 
let  us  hear  the  statements  of  Jesuits  themselves,  as 
to  their  understanding  of  the  spirit  and  import  of 
their  own  constitutions  and  vows  of  unqualified  obe- 
dience. Instances  might  be  given  both  of  a  comic 
and  a  tragic  character.  Of  Friar  Alphonso,  who 
was  the  porter  at  a  college  in  Majorca,  it  is  related 
by  one  of  his  own  brother-associates,  that,  having 
"  denied  himself,  in  the  way  of  penance,  a  part  of 
the  victuals  allowed  for  his  subsistence,  the  superior, 
to  whom  a  report  was  made  of  the  fact,  commanded 
him  to  eat  all  that  was  set  before  him.  To  fulfil  the 
sacred  duty  of  obedience,  Father  Alphonso  ate  his 
whole  allowance,  champed  even  the  plates  on  which 
it  was  served,  and  would  have  swallowed  them,  had 
not  the  superior  told  him  that  his  obedience  must 
not  proceed  beyond  the  glazing  of  the  earthenware." 
Another  practical  instance  and  proof  of  the  length 


22  THE    JESUITS. 

to  which  implicit  obedience  would  carry  its  votaries 
is  supplied  by  the  Romish  Abbe  de  la  Roche  Ar- 
nauld,  who  himself  went  through  many  of  the  pre- 
liminaries of  the  Jesuit  novitiate.  He  tells  us  of  the 
case  of  a  young  novice,  who,  when  asked  by  his 
master  concerning  the  sacrifice  of  Abraham,  and  that 
of  St.  Marius,  who  went  to  throw  his  son  into  a  fur- 
nace to  please  his  superior,  promptly,  and  unhesi- 
tatingly replied  :  "I  would  have  done  still  more. 
Were  God  to  order  me,  through  the  voice  of  my 
superior,  to  put  to  death  father,  mother,  children, 
brothers,  and  sisters,  I  would  do  it  with  an  eye  as 
tearless  and  a  heart  as  calm  as  if  I  were  seated  at 
the  banquet  of  the  paschal  lamb  !" 

Well,  surely,  might  Robertson  the  historian  ex- 
claim, that  "there  is  not  in  the  annals  of  mankind 
any  example  of  such  a  perfect  despotism,  exercised 
not  over  monks  shut  up  in  the  cells,  of  a  convent, 
but  over  men  dispersed  among  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth." 

But,  lest  any  one  should  presume  to  surmise  that 
this  is  a  Protestant  conclusion  merely,  and  not  a  fair 
representation  of  the  case,  Ave  shall  adduce  a  testi- 
mony that  must  be  held  by  Romanists  themselves 
as  wholly  unimpeachable.  Here  is  a  description 
and  denunciation  of  the  Jesuit  institute  :  "  In  order 
to  form  the  union,  the  consistency,  and  the  strength 
of  the  Society,  there  should  be  a  government 
not  only  monarchical,  but  so  sovereign,  so  absolute, 
so  despotic,  that  even  the  provincials  themselves 
should  not  have  it  in  their  power,  by  any  act  of 
theirs,  to  resist  or  retard  the  execution  of  the  orders 
of  the  general.  By  this  legislative,  inviolable,  and 
despotic  power — by  the  profound  devotedness  of  the 
subjects  of  this  company  to  mysterious  laws  with 
which  they  are  not  themselves  acquainted — by  the 
blind  and  passive  obedience  by  which  they  are  com- 


THE   JESUITS.  23 

pelled  to  execute,  without  hesitation  or  reply,  what- 
ever their  superiors  command — this  Society  is  at 
once  become  the  most  consolidated  and  powerful 
body,  and  at  the  same  time  the  greatest  and  most 
enormous  of  abuses,  to  which  there  is  an  urgent 
necessity  that  the  church  and  state  should  apply 
the  most  prompt  and  efficacious  remedy."  Who 
has  furnished  this  bold  outline,  this  vigorous  draft, 
this  powerful  sketch  of  the  "  most  absolute  of  des- 
potisms, the  "most  enormous  of  abuses?"  Doubt- 
less some  Protestant  calumniator — some  mortal 
enemy  to  Rome.  No  such  thing.  It  happens  to  be 
none  other  than  one  of  the  most  loyal  and  devoted 
adherents  of  the  holy  See — the  Romish  King  of 
Portugal.  It  is  from  the  public  manifesto  addressed 
to  his  bishops  in  1759,  that  the  words  now  quoted 
have  been  taken. 

What,  it  may  now  be  asked,  in  more  definite 
terms,  what  was  the  precise  function  to  be  discharged 
by  an  army  so  equipped,  so  marshalled,  so  trained  ? 
On  what  particular  enterprise  was  it  to  embark? 
What  specific  object  of  attainment  was  to  constitute 
the  prize  of  its  ambition  and  the  monument  of  its 
success  ? 

To  these  questions  the  answer  may  be  a  very 
brief  one.  Without  entering  into  details,  we  may 
simply  remind  you  of  the  grand  historical  fact,  that, 
in  some  countries  of  Europe,  towards  the  middle  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  the  once  absolute  and  univer- 
sal supremacy  of  the  Pope,  and  with  it  the  Popish 
cause  generally,  had  been  wholly  destroyed  ;  nearly 
so  in  others  ;  and  greatly  shaken  in  all.  Now,  the 
one  paramount  end  of  Jesuitism,  yea,  the  one  sole 
end  for  which  it  existed  at  all,  may  be  compen- 
diously stated  to  have  been  to  uphold  that  supre- 
macy inviolable  and  unchangeable.  What,  then, 
is  to  be  done,  where  such  supremacy  has  been  en- 


24  THE   JESUITS. 

tirely  lost,  or  is  threatened  with  decline  1  What, 
but  to  regain  and  restore  it  to  its  wonted  ascendency? 
But  what  means  could  prove  most  efficacious  ? 
This  may  be  at  once  seen,  by  asking,  What  occa- 
sioned the  loss  of  the  Pope's  supremacy  ?  Was  it 
not  the  Reformation  of  Luther,  with  its  renovating 
spirit  and  life-giving  principles  ?  Then,  surely,  the 
most  direct  and  effectual  way  of  restoring  the  lost 
supremacy  must  be,  to  beat  down  into  the  dust  its 
mighty  antagonist — the  Reformation. 

This,  this,  then,  was  the  gigantic  task  which  the 
Jesuits  undertook,  and  long  continued  to  prosecute 
with  a  zeal  unquenched,  and  an  ability  unrivalled — 
a  zeal  and  an  ability  which,  in  a  just  or  noble  cause, 
would  have  challenged  an  applause  as  unbounded 
as  it  must  now  call  forth  unmitigated  and  immiti- 
gable execration.  This  Herculean  design  is  thus 
truly  and  characteristically  stated  by  one  of  the  ear- 
liest historians  of  the  order.  "  In  the  same  year 
(1521)  Luther,"  says  he,  "with  consummate  wick- 
edness, openly  declared  war  against  the  Church ; 
wounded  in  the  fortress  of  Pampeluna,  renovated 
and  strengthened  by  his  accident,  Ignatius  raised 
the  standard  in  defence  of  religion.  Luther  attacks 
the  Chair  of  St.  Peter  with  abuse  and  blasphemy  ; 
Ignatius  is  miraculously  cured  by  St.  Peter,  in  order 
to  become  its  defence.  Luther,  like  a  madman, 
declaims  against  the  Apostolic  See  ;  Ignatius  every- 
where undertakes  its  defence.  Luther  withdraws 
from  it  as  many  as  he  can ;  Ignatius  reconciles  and 
restores  to  it.  All  the  devices  and  efforts  of  Luther 
are  directed  against  it ;  Ignatius  consecrates  to  it, 
by  a  special  vow,  all  his  own  labours  and  those  of 
his  companions.  To  Luther,  that  disgrace  of  Ger- 
many, that  Epicurean  hog,  that  curse  of  Europe, 
that  monster  destructive  to  the  whole  earth,  hateful 


THE   JESUITS.  25 

to  God  and  man,  God,  by  his  eternal  decree,  has  op- 
posed Ignatius." 

Thus  authoritatively  does  it  appear  that  the  Re- 
formation, which  had  wrenched  the  half  of  Christen- 
dom from  the  Papal  grasp,  and  caused  the  other 
half  to  hang  tremulous  or  oscillating  in  apparent  in- 
decision, must  be  checked,  arrested,  and,  if  possible, 
utterly  destroyed ;  and  to  achieve  this  object  was 
the  primary  and  paramount  end  contemplated  by 
Ignatius  and  his  followers,  constituting  "  the  Society 
of  Jesus." 

In  order  to  accomplish  this  end  the  more  effectu- 
ally, two  distinct  objects  immediately  and  urgently 
presented  themselves.  The  one  was  to  enlarge  the 
bounds  of  the  Papal  dominion,  and,  by  extending 
the  Papal  sceptre  over  foreign  lands  and  distant 
realms,  to  call  in  a  new  world  to  redress  the  balance 
of  the  old ;  hence  the  Papal  missions  !  The  other 
was,  to  commence  throughout  Europe  a  war  of  re- 
taliation and  aggression  on  the  Reformers,  the  Re- 
formed communities,  and  Reformation  principles. 
In  attempting  to  compass  these  two  great  objects,  by 
one  wide  and  multiform,  yet  simultaneous  process, 
the  spirit  and  genius  of  Rome,  through  the  child  of 
her  strength  and  the  instrument  of  her  power — 
Jesuitism — were  conspicuously  displayed. 

"  The  Society  of  Jesus"  being  thus  expressly,  and 
by  its  very  constitution,  designed  for  action — vigo- 
rous, energetic,  wide-spread  action — it  had  special 
exemptions  and  immunities  accorded  to  it,  the  better 
to  fit  and  qualify  it  for  its  peculiar  vocation.  Of 
every  other  monastic  or  religious  society  connected 
with  the  Papacy,  it  has  been  truly  remarked,  that 
the  immediate  design  was  "  to  separate  its  members 
from  the  world;  that  of  the  Jesuits,  to  render  them 
masters  of  the  world.  The  inmate  of  the  convent 
devoted  himself  to  work  out  his  own  salvation  by 
3 


26  THE    JESUITS. 

extraordinary  acts  of  devotion  and  self-denial ;  the 
follower  of  Loyola  considered  himself  as  plunging 
into  all  the  bustle  of  secular  affairs,  to  maintain  the 
interests  of  the  Romish  Church.  The  monk  was  a 
retired  devotee  of  heaven  ;  the  Jesuit  a  chosen  sol- 
dier of  the  Pope.  That  the  members  of  the  new 
order  might  have  full  leisure  for  this  active  service, 
they  were  exempted  from  the  usual  functions  of 
ether  monks.  They  were  not  required  to  spend 
their  time  in  the  long  ceremonial  offices  and  num- 
berless mummeries  of  the  Romish  worship.  They 
were  required  to  attend  no  processions — to  practise 
no  austerities.  They  neither  chanted  nor  prayed. 
4  They  cannot  sing,'  said  their  opponents  ;  '  for  birds 
of  prey  never  do.'  They  are  sent  forth  to  watch 
every  transaction  of  the  world  which  might  appear 
to  affect  the  interests  of  Rome."  To  them  also  was 
extended,  by  the  Court  of  Rome,  a  special  license 
to  trade  with  the  nations  of  the  earth — a  license 
which  speedily  paved  the  way  for  an  extensive  and 
lucrative  commerce  with  all  the  richest  countries  of 
the  Old  and  New  World. 

Behold,  then,  "  in  the  Society  of  Jesus,"  what  has 
been  emphatically  termed  "the  formidable  militia 
of  the  Roman  See !" — knit  together  as  one  man,  yea, 
rather  fused  and  molten  into  one  mass,  under  the 
uncontrollable  will  and  mandate  of  the  superior — a 
living,  moving  mass,  which  has  been  well  compared 
to  a  mechanism  containing  "the  greatest  possible 
quantity  of  power  distributed  to  the  greatest  possible 
advantage ;"  or, more  briefly,  to  a  tremendous  "  naked 
sicord,  whose  hilt  was  at  Rome." 

Behold,  in  this  Society,  an  army  of  chosen  sol- 
diers, bound  by  oath  to  exert  themselves  continually 
in  the  service  of  the  superior,  and  of  the  Pope,  as 
their  vice-Christ  and  vice-God !  In  other  armies 
the  leaders,  the  captains,  and  the  generals,  are  few 


THE   JESUITS.  27 

in  number.  Ninety-nine  in  a  hundred  are  utterly 
unfit  to  be  leaders  themselves,  and  utterly  helpless 
without  them.  But,  in  the  army  of  Jesuits,  each 
individual  is  a  picked  and  chosen  man,  himself  fit, 
in  his  own  appointed  sphere,  to  become  a  leader,  a 
captain,  or  a  general,  yea,  a  chieftain  among  leaders. 
In  other  armies  that  have  achieved  deeds  of  undying 
fame,  there  have  been  unity  and  combination  of 
movement  and  action;  but,  in  point  of  oneness  of 
mind,  singleness  of  purpose,  simultaneousness  of 
action,  and  terribleness  of  execution,  what  army,  in 
ancient  or  in  modern  times,  is  fit  to  be  compared 
with  that  of  the  Jesuits  ?  Why,  in  these  respects, 
the  Roman  legion,  the  Macedonian  phalanx,  the 
British  regiment,  or  all  of  these  united,  are  no  more 
worthy  of  being  named  in  comparison,  than  that 
"small  infantry  warred  on  by  cranes,"  is  worthy  of 
being  named  in  comparison  with  the  mightiest 
"imbodied  force"  of  "mortal  prowess" — 


!'  Though  all  the  giant  brood 


Of  Phlegra  with  th'  heroic  race  were  joined 
That  fought  at  Thebes  and  Ilium,  on  each  side 
Mix'd  with  auxiliar  gods  ;  and  what  resounds 
In  fable  or  romance  of  Uther's  son 
Begirt  with  British  and  Armoric  knights  ; 
And  all  who  since,  baptized  or  infidel, 
Jousted  at  Aspramont,  or  Montalban, 
Damasco,  or  Morocco,  or  Trebisond ; 
Or  whom  Biserta  sent  from  Afric  shore, 
When  Charlemagne  with  all  his  peerage  fell 
By  Fontarabia." 

And,  finally,  behold,  in  this  Society  of  Jesus,  a 
sworn  confederacy  for  the  revival  of  the  reign  of 
ignorance — the  full  restoration  of  the  yoke  of  Papal 
despotism.  Behold  in  it,  a  fell  and  terrible  confede- 
racy against  the  rights  of  conscience,  and  the  civil 
and  religious  liberties,  not  of  Europe  only,  but  of  the 
world  ! 

Nor  was  it  less  successful  than  it  was  fell  and 


28  THE    JESUITS. 

terrible.  No  sooner  had  it  been  formed,  than  its 
authors  and  emissaries,  with  surprising  rapidity, 
overran  the  whole  globe.  Most  of  the  schools  and 
colleges  of  Europe  came  under  their  management 
and  control.  To  most  of  its  monarchs  they  became 
confessors — a  function,  as  has  been  observed,  "of  no 
small  importance,  in  any  reign,  but  under  a  weak 
prince  superior  even  to  that  of  minister."  In  most 
of  its  cabinets  and  courts  their  counsel  and  policy 
were  all-prevailing.  In  most  of  its  corporate  bodies, 
civil  and  ecclesiastical,  their  mysterious  presence 
was  felt  with  all  the  effect  of  a  secret  and  resistless 
energy.  As  the  spiritual  guides  of  the  largest  pro- 
portion of  its  wealthiest,  noblest,  and  most  powerful 
families,  their  all  but  ubiquitous  influence  extended 
to  almost  every  domestic  circle,  from  the  cottage  to 
the  palace — to  almost  every  individual,  from  the 
peasant  to  the  prince.  In  a  word,  their  empire  and 
dominion  over  the  souls  and  persons  of  men  seemed 
unbounded,  and  threatened  to  be  eternal. 

And  what  was  the  natural  and  inevitable  result 
of  an  influence  so  universal,  an  antagonism  so  resist- 
less ?  It  was  this,  that  in  many  of  the  Heathen 
states  and  empires  of  Asia,  Africa,  and  America, 
their  missions,  for  a  season,  were  crowned  with  a 
temporal  prosperity  which  wore  the  air  of  marvel 
and  romance ;  and  that,  throughout  the  bounds  of 
old  Christendom,  the  tide  of  the  glorious  Reforma- 
tion, everywhere  arrested,  was  in  many  parts  wholly 
rolled  back.  Every  thing  appeared  to  indicate  a 
speedy  relapse  into  stagnation  of  repressed  energy 
and  fettered  thought.  The  light  of  a  resuscitated 
evangelism,  everywhere  bedimmed,  was  in  many 
parts  wholly  extinguished ;  while  every  thing  be- 
tokened a  quick  return  to  the  gloom  of  a  scaled 
mental  vision  and  cloudy  firmament ;  and  if  the  fer- 
tilizing stream  of  Reformation  has  not  everywhere 


THE    JESUITS.  29 

putresced,  or  its  reviving  light  everywhere  gone  out, 
or  its  joyous  liberty  everywhere  become  extinct,  no 
thanks  to  the  men  who  have  toiled  with  such  despe- 
rate vigour  to  realize  so  fatal,  so  disastrous  a  con- 
summation. To  Him,  to  Him  alone,  "  who  doth 
according  to  his  will  among  the  armies  of  heaven 
and  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,"  be  all  the  praise, 
and  all  the  glory ! 

Fairly,  and  most  naturally,  may  it  now  be  asked, 
How,  or  in  what  way,  came  they  to  possess  and 
wield  so  stupendous  an  influence  ?  What  were  the 
means — the  agencies  —  the  weapons  employed? 
Not,  we  may  be  sure,  the  temporal  sword  directly ; 
for,  had  they  met  their  enemies  boldly  and  openly 
in  the  battle-field,  there  are  yet,  even  in  these  days 
of  cold-hearted  and  mercenary  selfishness,  patriots 
enough  in  Christendom,  who,  in  defence  of  free- 
dom's cause,  would  have  converted  many  a  barren 
plain  and  many  a  rugged  pass  into  another  and  a 
nobler  Marathon — another  and  a  more  renowned 
Thermopylae.  Not,  we  may  be  sure,  the  "  sword 
of  the  Spirit,"  the  word  of  the  living  God,  which  is 
powerful  in  combating  principalities,  and  powers, 
and  spiritual  wickednesses,  and  in  bringing  down 
the  strongholds  of  sin  and  Satan,  throughout  the 
realms  of  Gentilism ;  for  ends  so  sinister  and  un- 
holy as  theirs  could  not  brook  the  employment  of  a 
weapon  of  such  ethereal  temper;  or,  if  they  could, 
such  a  weapon,  like  the  touch  of  IthuriePs  spear, 
would  soon  unmask  the  treachery,  and  cause  each 
cunning  artifice  to  stand  forth  to  view  in  its  own 
proper  shape  and  likeness.  No  ! — the  means  em- 
ployed were  as  unscrupulous  as  the  end,  and  as 
complex  and  multitudinous  as  the  end  itself  was 
simple  and  one. 

The  great  leading  and  avowed  object  being,  as 
has  been  remarked,  "  to  establish  a  spiritual  domi- 
nion over  the  minds  of  men,  of  which  the  Pope 
3* 


30  THE   JESUITS. 

should  appear  as  the  ostensible  head,  while  the  real 
power  should  reside  with  themselves,  nothing  could 
divert  them  from  it.  No  means  were  ever  scrupled 
at  which  promised  to  aid  its  accomplishment.  They 
were  in  no  degree  shackled  by  prejudice,  supersti- 
tion, or  real  religion.  Expediency,  in  its  most 
simple  and  licentious  form,  was  the  basis  of  their 
morals ;  and  their  principles  and  practices  were 
uniformly  accommodated  to  the  circumstances  in 
which  they  were  placed.  Even  their  bigotry,  ob- 
durated  as  it  was.  never  appears  to  have  interfered 
with  their  interests.  The  paramount  and  charac- 
teristic principle  of  the  order,  from  which  none  of  its 
members  ever  swerved,  was  simply  this,  that  its  in- 
terests were  to  be  promoted  by  all  possible  means — 
at  all  possible  expense.  In  order  to  acquire  more 
easily  an  ascendency  over  persons  of  rank  and 
power,  they  propagated  a  system  of  the  most  re- 
laxed morality,  which  accommodated  itself  to  the 
passions  of  men,  justified  their  vices,  tolerated  their 
imperfections,  and  authorized  almost  every  action 
which  the  most  audacious  or  crafty  politician  could 
wish  to  perpetrate.  To  persons  of  stricter  principles 
they  studied  to  recommend  themselves  by  the  purity 
of  their  lives,  and  sometimes  by  the  austerity  of  their 
doctrines.  'They  are  a  sort  of  people,'  said  the 
Abbe  Boileau,  '  who  lengthen  the  creed  and  shorten 


srue 


)  »> 


the  decalo 

No  wonder  though,  under  the  predominant  in- 
fluence of  a  system  so  boundlessly  accommodative 
to  all  that  is  corrupt  and  perverse  in  the  nature  of 
man — a  system  so  immensely  elastic  under  every 
conceivable  variety  of  circumstances — the  Jesuits 
should  so  speedily  have  climbed  to  the  very  zenith 
in  the  firmament  of  misbegotten  power. 

And  this  naturally  brings  us  to  one  main  object 
of  the  present  lecture,  which  is  to  portray,  in  faith- 
ful and  authentic  colours, 


THE   JESUITS.  31 


THE  MORALITY  OF  THE  JESUITS. 

Sure  I  am,  that  if  a  serious  contemplation  of  the 
great  end  pursued  by  them  cannot  fail  to  inspire  you 
with  a  feeling  of  wholesome  dread  and  terror,  that 
feeling  cannot  be  diminished,  but  rather  mightily 
increased,  by  the  like  contemplation  of  the  morality 
which  freely  allowed  the  most  sinister  means  to  be 
employed  in  its  prosecution ;  and,  in  descending 
from  generalities  to  particulars,  with  the  view  of 
impugning  their  maxims  of  morality,  I  beg  it,  at  the 
very  outset,  to  be  clearly  and  distinctly  understood, 
that  I  shall  quote  no  Protestant  author  whatsoever. 

The  sole  authorities  to  which  I  intend  to  refer 
shall  be  accredited  Jesuit  authorities,  and  none  other. 
The  Jesuit  morality  is  to  be  impanelled  or  put  on  its 
trial.  The  charge  against  it  is  a  tremendous  one. 
It  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  this,  that  it  violates, 
and  systematically  teaches  how  to  violate  with  im- 
punity, every  precept  of  the  decalogue.  You,  that 
is,  the  miscellaneous  audience  now  before  me,  are 
called  on  to  act  the  part  of  an  impartial  jury.  On 
me  has  devolved  the  painful  duty  of  presenting  my- 
self before  you,  in  the  invidious  attitude,  the  unen- 
viable relationship,  of  public  accuser  and  prosecutor. 
But  my  heart's  desire  is  to  act  in  this  matter  with 
the  most  rigid  justice — the  most  unchallengeable 
impartiality  ;  and  in  proof  of  this  my  honesty  and 
integrity  of  purpose,  I  hereby  again  declare  that  I 
shall  not  summon  into  the  witness-box  a  single  wit- 
ness, who  is  not  himself,  not  merely  a  friend,  but 
an  adherent,  yea,  and  a  veritable  champion  of  Jesuit- 
ism ;  so  that,  if  the  verdict  of  "  Guilty"  must  be 
returned  by  you,  and  the  sentence  of  condemnation 
must  be  pronounced  by  me,  such  verdict  and  sen- 


32  THE   JESUITS. 

tence  shall  be  founded  exclusively  on  evidence,  re- 
dundant evidence,  derived  from  the  most  indubitable 
of  all  sources,  even  the  standard  writings  of  the 
Jesuit  authors  themselves. 

These  writings  are  at  once  voluminous  and  au- 
thoritative ;  for  while  the  general,  as  has  been 
remarked,  is,  strictly  speaking,  "the  soul  of  the 
Society,  still,  in  a  larger  sense  of  that  descriptive 
term,  the  professed  members,  acting  under  his  sole 
superintendence,  must  be  considered  as  included  in 
it.  They  were  the  casuists  of  the  order.  Their 
hours  of  retirement  were  occupied  in  brooding  over 
its  principles  ;  in  extending  the  sphere  of  their  ope- 
ration, by  further  subtleties  and  refinements ;  and 
in  composing  digests  and  manuals  to  facilitate  their 
application.  It  is  to  the  literary  labours,  therefore, 
of  these  casuists,  that  reference  must  be  made  for  a 
complete  development  of  the  Jesuitical  system." 
Now,  from  the  avowed  and  published  works  of  these 
Jesuit  authors,  copious  extracts  and  selections  have 
often  been  made.  In  this  department  of  research 
and  criticism,  Pascal  and  Arnauld,  and  the  author 
of  "  A  Parallel  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Pagans  with 
the  Doctrine  of  the  Jesuits,"  and  many  more  besides, 
have  distinguished  themselves,  and  immortalized 
their  services  in  the  cause  of  truth  and  righteous- 
ness. But  the  most  elaborate  and  authoritative 
collection  of  extracts  is  that  which  was  made  by  a 
judicial  assembly  above  all  suspicion  of  garbling 
evidence — a  special  commission  of  the  Parliament 
of  France — consisting  of  Jive  princes  of  the  blood, 
four  peers  of  France,  seven  presidents  of  the  Court, 
thirteen  counsellors  of  the  Grand  Chamber,  and  four- 
teen other  public  functionaries.  The  whole  collec- 
tion, extracted  from  not  fewer  than  one  hundred  and 
forty-seven  accredited  Jesuit  authors,  and  forming 
a  large  quarto,  was  published  by  authority  in  176*^, 


THE   JESUITS. 


33 


as  verified  and  collated  by  the  commissioners  of 
Parliament. 

With  such  works,  or  large  and  authenticated 
selections  therefrom,  before  us,  our  task  will  be 
comparatively  an  easy  one ;  inasmuch  as  it  must 
mainly  consist  in  extracting,  condensing,  and  arrang- 
ing. Indeed,  with  such  redundant  materials  in  our 
possession,  the  only  difficulty  is  to  determine  what 
parts  ought,  for  our  purpose,  to  be  chosen  ;  where 
and  how  to  begin;  or,  once  beginning,  where  and 
how  to  end. 

Here,  however,  it  is  as  well,  in  limine,  to  repel 
two  plausible  objections  or  evasions. 

First,  It  has  been  alleged  that  Jesuitism  is  not 
Popery,  and  that  it  is  not  fair  to  make  the  Pope  or 
the  Popish  polity  responsible  for  it. 

Now,  we  maintain  that  if,  by  any  verbal  quibble, 
Jesuitism  be  declared  to  be  not  Popery  in  its  ordi- 
nary form,  then  must  it  be  held,  either  as  the 
essence,  (t.  e.  the  essential  spirit  of  Popery,)  or  as 
that  spirit  in  its  last  manifestation  and  most  perfect 
development.  What  the  cream  is  to  the  milk,  what 
the  laudanum  is  to  the  poppy,  what  the  alcohol  is 
to  the  grape,  or  what  any  other  extract,  essence,  or 
quintessence,  is  to  the  substance  whence  it  is  drawn, 
that  is  Jesuitism  to  Popery.  Or,  if  this  do  not  sa- 
tisfy, then  what  the  croaking  frog  is  to  the  tadpole, 
Avhat  the  roaring  lion  is  to  the  cub,  what  the  sturdy 
gnarled  oak  is  to  the  sapling,  or  what  any  other 
fully  developed  animal  or  vegetable  form  is  to  its 
seed,  or  germ,  or  youngling,  that  is  Jesuitism  to 
Popery.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  we  hold  it  to  be 
absolutely  demonstrable  that  for  Jesuitism  Popery 
is  out  and  out  responsible.  What  induced  Paul  III. 
to  grant  his  bull  of  constitution  ?  Was  it  not  the 
fourth  or  supplementary  vow,  by  which  all  the  pro- 
fessed members  of  the  Society  "solemnly  bound 


34  THE   JESUITS. 

themselves  to  the  sovereign  Pontiff  and  his  succes- 
sors, to  go  whithersoever  they  might  choose  to  com- 
mand them  ?"  These,  then,  by  the  fundamental 
conditions  of  their  very  constitution,  are  the  sworn 
missionaries  of  the  Roman  See — the  accredited 
agents  of  its  aggressions,  alike  on  Protestantism  and 
Heathenism — the  authorized  or  officially  delegated 
instruments  of  its  power  in  re-assuring  friends  and 
proselytizing  foes.  And,  inasmuch  as  the  master 
is  answerable  for  the  official  sayings  and  doings  of 
his  sworn  and  trusty  agents,  while  sanctioned  and 
upheld  by  his  authority,  this  circumstance  alone 
were  enough  to  make  Popery  responsible  for  Jesu- 
itism. But  this  is  not  all.  Here  is  an  edict  that 
will  bind  that  responsibility  faster  still.  In  the 
second  bull  of  Pius  III.,  1543,  the  Society  is  ex- 
pressly authorized  "  to  adopt  such  constitutions  as 
they  may  judge  fit,  with  power,  as  well  with  re- 
spect to  the  constitutions  already  adopted  as  those 
which  should  be  made  in  future,  to  alter  or  annul 
them,  according  to  the  difference  of  time  and  place, 
and  the  qualities  and  diversities  of  things ;  and  to 
form  other  constitutions,  which,  by  special  favour, 
(mark  this,)  shall  be,  ipso  facto,  considered  as  ap~ 
proved  by  the  Holy  See."  Subsequent  bulls,  par- 
ticularly those  of  1549,  1G82,  and  1684,  have  fully 
ratified  and  confirmed  this  plenary  Papal  license. 
Here  the  Head  of  the  Church,  in  plain  and  unam- 
biguous terms,  assumes,  by  anticipation,  the  full 
and  absolute  responsibility.  But,  it  may  be  alleged 
that  two  Popes  at  least  were  shamed  into  issuing 
bulls  against  some  of  their  proceedings.  True, 
when  their  pernicious  principles  and  practices 
excited  a  general  indignation,  which  threatened  to 
shake  the  throne  of  the  Vatican,  such  bulls  were, 
pro  forma,  by  way  of  feint  or  pretext,  sent  forth ; 
but  such  prime  favourites  were  the  Jesuits  at  Rome, 


THE   JESUITS.  35 

that  these  bulls  were  soon  suppressed,  and,  in  point 
of  fact,  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  Bullariwn  Pon- 
tijicum.  Nay,  more :  when,  in  Portugal,  some  of 
the  members  were  found  guilty  of  conspiracy  against 
the  life  of  the  king,  the  Pope  peremptorily  refused 
his  consent  to  the  execution  of  the  sentence  of  the 
law.  And,  when  expelled  from  that  kingdom  for 
high  misdemeanors,  did  he  not  receive  them  with 
ovations  of  triumph  in  Italy  ?  True,  it  may  be  said ; 
but  did  not  Clement  XIV.,  in  1773,  by  a  bull,  sup- 
press the  order  altogether  ?  Admitted  ;  but,  up  to 
that  date,  was  not  every  thing  said  and  done  under 
the  signet  of  Papal  infallibility  ?  And,  what  is  more 
to  our  purpose,  did  not  Pope  Pius  IV.,  in  1814,  by 
another  bull,  wholly  "  reverse  the  decree  of  his  pre- 
decessor, legalize  the  vows  of  that  so  often  prohibited 
Society,  and  place  it  in  a  condition  to  exercise,  in 
all  countries  of  the  world,  its  former  discipline?" 
Yea,  moreover,  did  not  "the  head  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,"  as  recently  expressed  by  a  dignitary  of  the 
Church  of  England,  "  restore  this  Society  in  all  its 
plenitude,  neither  accompanying  his  rescript  with 
any  refutation  or  denial  of  the  odious  doctrines  and 
practices  which  had  been  imputed  to  it,  nor  express- 
ing his  own  disapprobation  of  them,  nor  so  much  as 
giving  a  public  caution  against  their  re-introduction  ?" 
In  every  way,  therefore,  must  Popery  be  held  re- 
sponsible for  Jesuitism,  past  and  present. 

Secondly,  It  has  been  alleged  as  unfair,  that  the 
principles  of  individual  Jesuit  authors  should  be 
charged  home  indiscriminately  on  the  whole  body. 

In  the  case  of  any  other  society,  the  force  of  this 
reclamation  might,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  be  ad- 
mitted ;  but  in  the  case  of  the  Jesuits  such  admis- 
sion, in  any  form,  however  qualified,  is  utterly  im- 
possible ;  for,  what  are  the  facts  of  the  case  ?  Is  it 
not  the  fact,  that  one  of  the  most  stringent  oaths 


36  THE   JESUITS. 

exacted  of  every  novice,  scholar,  coadjutor,  and  pro- 
fessed member,  is,  that  he  hold  no  private  or  pecu- 
liar opinion  of  his  own — no  opinion  different  from 
that  of  his  superior — no  opinion  at  variance  with 
the  entire  corporate  brotherhood  ?  This  alone  were 
sufficient  to  establish  a  verdict  of  common  or  joint 
responsibility.  But  this  is  not  all.  Has  not  the 
Society  rather  boastingly  supplied  us  with  express 
"  identifications  of  itself  in  opinion  and  doctrine  with 
all  its  individual  members  ?"  What  says  Father 
Le  Moyne  in  1726 1  "  It  is  not  a  slight  testimony  in 
our  favour,  that  in  these  troublous  times  not  one 
among  us  has  changed  or  wavered.  Uniformity  on 
this  point  will  always  remain  the  same."  What 
says  Gretser  in  his  defence  of  the  Society  ?  "It  is 
not  from  obscure  descriptions  that  an  opinion  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  Jesuits  can  be  formed,  but  from 
their  books ;  w^hich,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  are 
already  very  numerous."  And  again  :  "  There  are 
many  theological  works  written  by  the  doctors  of  the 
Society.  We  profess  the  same  doctrine  in  a  vast 
number  of  places,  both  privately  and  publicly  in  the 
schools."  Still  more  emphatic  are  the  assertions  of 
the  celebrated  author  of  the  history  of  the  Society's 
operations  during  the  first  century  of  its  existence. 
"The  members  of  the  Society,"  says  he,  "are  dis- 
persed through  every  corner  of  the  world,  distin- 
guished by  as  many  nations  and  kingdoms  as  the  earth 
has  intersections ;  but  this  is  a  division  arising  from 
diversity  of  place,  not  of  opinion — a  difference  of  lan- 
guage, not  of  affection — a  dissimilarity  of  counte- 
nance, not  of  morals.  In  this  association,  the  Latin 
thinks  with  the  Greek,  the  Portuguese  with  the 
Brazilian,  the  Irishman  with  the  Sarmatian,  the 
Englishman  with  the  Belgian  ;  and  among  so  many 
different  dispositions  there  is  no  strife — no  conten- 
tion— nothing  which  affords  opportunity  of  disco- 


THE    JESUITS.  37 

vering  that  they  are  more  than  one.  Tlie  same 
design,  the  same  manner  of  life,  the  same  uniting 
vow,  combine  them.  The  pleasure  of  a  single  in- 
dividual (the  general)  can  cause  the  whole  Society 
to  turn  and  return,  and  determine  the  revolution  of 
this  numerous  body,  which  is  easily  moved,  but  with 
difficulty  shaken." 

But  we  must  now  proceed  to  the  actual  proof  of 
our  charge,  viz.,  that  the  Jesuit  morality  does  vio- 
late, yea,  and  systematically  teaches  how  to  violate 
with  impunity,  every  precept  of  the  decalogue.  And, 
first,  there  are  certain  general  principles  adopted 
and  enforced  by  the  Jesuits,  which  alone  are  suffi- 
cient to  sap  the  foundations  of  all  morality. 

The  first  of  these  which  I  shall  notice  is  the  cele- 
brated doctrine  of  probability.  The  doctrine  has 
been  thus  defined  :  "  When,  upon  any  moral  ques- 
tion, two  different  opinions  are  entertained  by  any 
celebrated  casuists,  of  which  opinions  the  one  is 
more  probable  and  in  conformity  with  the  law — the 
other  less  probable,  but  more  agreeable  to  our  de- 
sires, we  may  lawfully  put  the  latter  in  practice." 
In  other  words,  any  one  may  transgress  God's  law 
with  safety,  who  has  a  probable  reason  for  trans- 
gressing ;  that  is,  any  plausible  argument  or  au- 
thority in  favour  of  the  sin  he  is  inclined  to 
commit. ! 

Methinks  I  now  hear  some  one  whisper  that  this 
surely  must  be  a  mistake,  if  not  an  intentional  mis- 
representation of  the  Jesuit  doctrine.  Well,  then, 
let  us  summon  our  witnesses.  Our  first  question 
is,  What  do  you  mean  by  a  probable  reason  or 
opinion  ?  Hear  the  response  of  the  Jesuit  Filliu- 
cius.  "The  authority,"  says  he,  "of  one  good  and 
learned  doctor  renders  an  opinion  probable."  Is 
this  not  enough  ?  Then  hear  the  Jesuit  George  de 
4 


38  THE   JESUITS. 

Rhodes.  "  It  is  sufficient,"  says  he,  "  to  render  an 
opinion  probable,  that  some  pious  doctor  of  great 
celebrity,  especially  among  the  moderns,  (i.  e.,  among 
the  Jesuits,)  maintain  it.  That  any  opinion  may 
become  probable,  a  single  good  reason  is  sufficient ; 
but  the  authority  of  any  one  doctor,  of  great  reputa- 
tion and  piety,  is  a  good  reason" — "a  svfficient 
reason  on  which  to  ground  the  "probability  of  any 
opinion.''''  Such  being  the  Jesuit  definition  of  a 
probable  doctrine  or  opinion,  our  next  question  is, 
How  is  the  doctrine  to  be  practically  applied  ? 
We  answer  in  this  way  :  If,  for  example,  in  favour 
of  any  sin  or  crime  which  you  wish  to  commit,  you 
can  adduce  the  opinion  of  any  one  Jesuit  doctor, 
(and  in  doing  so  you  can  never  be  at  any  loss,)  be 
the  sin  or  crime  that  of  "  theft  or  lying,  perjury  or 
impurity,  homicide,  or  parricide,  or  regicide,  or  any 
thing  else,  and  if  your  own  inclination  is  in  favour 
of  that  opinion  which  allows  it,  even  though  your 
judgment  might  assure  you  that  that  opinion  is 
founded  on  much  less  moral  probability  than  its  oppo- 
site, then  perpetrate  it  you  may  with  impunity  !" 

Methinks  I  hear  some  one  again  whisper :  Oh  ! 
surely  this  is  more  than  a  misrepresentation — it 
must  be  utterly  libellous.  Then,  let  us  summon 
our  witnesses.  Hear  the  Jesuit  Henrique.  **  A 
scrupulous  man,"  says  he,  "  continues  safe,  if  he 
prefers  against  his  scruples,  that  which  he  con- 
siders probable,  although  he  may  think  that  another 
opinion  is  more  probable."  Is  there  any  ambiguity 
here  ?  If  so,  then  let  the  Jesuit  Paul  Laymann  re- 
move it.  "  Of  two  contradictory  probable  opinions," 
says  he,  "  touching  the  legality  or  illegality  of  any 
human  action,  every  one  may  follow,  in  practice  or 
in  action,  that  which  he  should  prefer;  although 
it  may  appear  to  the  agent  himself  less  probable  in 
theory ."     Yea,  more,  adds  he,  "  a  learned  person 


THE    JESUITS. 


39 


may  give  contrary  advice  to  different  persons,  ac~ 
cording  to  contrary  probable  opinions;  whilst  he 
still  preserves  discretion  and  prudence." 

This,  however,  it  may  be  alleged,  is  mere  dog- 
matic assertion.  Very  well,  then,  listen  to  the 
Jesuit  Casnedi's  demonstration  on  the  subject. 
"  We  are  never,"  says  he,  "  more  free  from  the 
violation  of  the  law,  than  when  we  persuade  our- 
selves that  we  are  not  bound  by  the  law;  for  he 
who  says  that  he  is  bound  by  the  law,  rather  ex- 
poses himself  to  danger  of  committing  sin.  Per- 
haps he  who  has  thus  persuaded  himself  will  not 
fall  into  sin  ;  but  he  tvho  says  that  the  law  is  not 
binding,  cannot  sin.  He,  therefore,  (mark  the 
conclusion,)  who  follows  fhe  less  rigid  and  less 
probable  opinion,  cannot  sin." 

Can  there  be  any  mind  so  hopelessly  obtuse  as 
to  have  one  lingering  particle  of  dubiety  now? 
If  so,  then  must  the  force  of  a  few  transpicuous 
examples  effectually  dislodge  it.  Ye  Socialists  and 
Radicals,  and  politically  disaffected  ! — here  is  a  con- 
venient example  for  you.  "If,"  says  the  Jesuit 
Louis  de  Scildere,  "if  a  subject  thinks  probably 
that  a  tax  has  been  unjustly  imposed,  he  is  not 
bound  to  pay  it."  Ye  covetous  and  extortioners ! — 
here  is  a  charming  example  for  you.  "  I  think  it 
probable,"  says  the  Jesuit  Ferdinand  de  Castro 
Palao,  "  that  the  cloak  which  I  possess  is  my  own ; 
yet  I  think  it  more  probable  that  it  belongs  to  you." 
In  such  a  case,  "/  am  not  bound  to  give  it  up  to 
you,  but  I  may  safely  retain  it."  In  other  words  : 
though  the  cloak  is  yours,  since  I  prefer  to  keep  it, 
I  may  do  so  without  sin !  Ye  partial  and  unjust 
judges ! — here  is  an  example,  with  ample  license, 
for  you.  "  Without  respect  of  persons  may  a 
judge,"  asks  the  Jesuit  Gregory  of  Valencia,  "  in 
order  to  favour  his  friend,  decide  according  to  any 


40  THE   JESUITS. 

probable  opinion,  while  the  question  of  right  re- 
mains undecided  V  And  what  is  his  reply  ?  It 
is  this :  "  If  the  judge  should  think  each  opinion 
equally  probable,  for  the  sake  of  his  friend  he  may 
lawfully  pronounce  sentence  according  to  the 
opinion  which  is  more  favourable  to  the  interest 
of  that  friend.  He  may,  moreover,  with  the  in- 
tent to  serve  his  friend,  at  one  time  judge  according 
to  one  opinion,  and  at  another  time  according  to 
the  contrary  opinion,  provided  only  that  no  scandal 
result  from  the  opinion." 

Ah !  how  different,  how  contrary  all  this  to  the 
dictates  of  right  reason — to  the  perfect  ethics  of 
God's  word !  Is  the  soul  poised  between  two 
opposing  probabilities,  but  is  one  soon  found  to  be 
a  probability  of  the  highest,  and  the  other  a  proba- 
bility of  the  lowest  degree  ?  What,  then,  says 
reason  itself?  Is  it  not  that  the  highest  probability 
should  instantly  determine  the  course  of  obedience  ? 
No,  replies  the  Jesuit ;  desire,  or  preference,  or  self- 
interest  may  at  once  make  the  scale  preponderate 
in  favour  of  the  very  lowest  probability  !  Thus  is 
reason  itself  contradicted  and  scandalized !  And 
how  much  more  the  word  of  God !  For  what 
saith  it,  even  in  matters  of  indifference  ;  that  is,  in 
respect  to  actions  which  are  neither  expressly  pro- 
hibited nor  expressly  enjoined  ?  Are  we  in  doubt, 
in  suspense,  or  in  any  uncertainty  even  here  ? — 
then  to  refrain  is  our  imperative  duty.  "  He  that 
doubteth  is  damned,  if  he  eat ;"  and,  "  Whatsoever 
is  not  of  faith  is  sin." 

The  second  of  these  general  principles — which 
alone  are  enough  to  upset  the  basis  of  all  morality — 
is  the  doctrine  of  philosophical  sin;  by  which  the 
Jesuits  mean,  "  any  action  contrary  to  the  dictates 
of  nature  and  right  reason,  done  by  a  person  who 
is  ignorant  of  the  written  law  of  God,  or  doubtful 


THE   JESUITS.  41 

of  its  meaning. "  What  a  fearfully  wide  door  does 
this  latitudinarian  principle  open  up  to  all  sorts  of 
transgression ! 

The  third  of  these  general  principles  is  that  of 
the  direction  of  the  intention ;  by  which  the 
Jesuits  mean,  "that  actions  intrinsically  evil,  and 
directly  contrary  to  the  divine  laws,  may  be  inno- 
cently performed  by  those  who  have  so  much  power 
over  their  own  minds  as  to  join,  even  ideally,  a  good 
end  to  the  wicked  action  contemplated."  In  other 
words,  by  this  principle  it  is  provided  that  if,  during 
the  perpetration  of  any  crime,  the  perpetrator  can 
divert  his  thoughts  from  the  act  to  some  other 
object,  which  is  acknowledgedly  virtuous,  the  foul 
deed  ceases  to  befoul;  that  if  the  criminal  can,  by 
some  heroic  moral  self-subjugation,  repress  the 
voice  of  conscience,  the  sin  ceases  to  be  sin:  nay, 
more,  that  if  he  can  propose  by  his  crime  to  con- 
summate any  legitimate  desire,  "the  end  sanctifies 
the  means  ;" — all,  all  in  insulting  contempt  of  the 
apostle's  solemn  disclaimer  of  the  mischievous 
maxim  so  slanderously  imputed  to  him  and  his 
brethren,  viz.,  "  Let  us  do  evil  that  good  may 
come ;"  and  in  brave  defiance  of  his  denunciation 
of  those  who  advocated  such  a  maxim — "  whose 
damnation  is  just." 

If  time  permitted,  the  illustration  of  these  prin- 
ciples would  serve  to  show  how  each  of  them  sepa- 
rately, and  how  much  more  all  of  them  unitedly, 
must  act  as  so  many  wedges  and  sledge-hammers 
to  cleave  asunder,  and  dash  to  pieces,  every  one  of 
the  commandments  of  God  ;  but  we  must  hasten  on 
to  particulars. 

The  great  Author  of  Christianity  himself  has 
assured  us,  that  on  two  commands — the  love  of  God 
and  the  love  of  our  neighbour — hang  all  the  law 

4* 


42  THE   JESUITS. 

and  the  prophets.  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and 
with  all  thy  mind."  "This,"  says  the  great 
Teacher,  "  this  is  the  first  and  great  command- 
ment." 

Is  it  possible  to  conceive  any  words  more  simple, 
more  clear,  more  unambiguous  ?  Certainly  not. 
Even  the  Jesuits  themselves  are  free  to  admit  that 
all  this  seems  plain  enough  in  the  letter ;  but  things 
must  not  be  taken  too  strictly  in  the  letter;  for  "the 
letter  killeth,"  while  "  the  spirit  giveth  life."  "  Be- 
hold," says  the  famous  Father  Sirmond,  "behold 
the  goodness  of  God,  and  how  great  it  is  !  He  has 
not  so  much  commanded  us  to  love  him,  as  not  to 
hate  him."  So,  then,  the  great  God  and  Father  of 
all,  the  very  fount  of  all  goodness  and  grace,  who, 
out  of  his  ineffable  love,  gave  up  his  Son  unto  the 
death  for  us,  we  are  not  to  love  truly  at  all,  but 
simply  to  content  ourselves  with  not  hating  him  ! 
But  why  banish  the  love  of  God  out  of  the  code  of 
moral  and  spiritual  obligation  ?  Why,  because  such 
love  would  be  incompatible  with  the  love  and  wilful 
commission  of  sin  ;  whereas  the  very  object  of 
Jesuit  morality  is  to  teach  men  how  to  love  and 
commit  sin  with  impunity  !  But  to  say  this  in  so 
many  express  terms  would  not  do;  hence  the 
banishment  of  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  love 
of  God  is  made  to  rest  on  other  grounds.  What 
may  these  be  ?  Hear  Father  Valentia :  "  Contri- 
tion," (which,  as  elsewhere  defined  by  the  father 
himself,  is  a  sorrow  for  sins  founded  on  the  love  of 
God  above  all  other  motives — that  is,  evangelical 
sorrow  for  sin)  "  contrition,  such  contrition,  is  not 
necessary  in  itself  for  receiving  the  primary  effect 
of  the  two  sacraments,  (baptism  and  penance  ;)  but, 
on  the  contrary,  is  rather  an  obstacle  to  it."  Whence 
he  concludes,   "  that   the    requiring   contrition,  in 


THE    JESUITS.  43 

order  to  receive  those  sacraments  duly  and  with 
advantage,  would  be  an  absurd  precept." 

What  is  here  called  an  absurd  precept  ? — It  is 
the  requirement  of  sorrow  founded  on  the  love  of 
God,  in  order  to  be  reconciled  to  God.  And  why 
is  such  a  requirement  an  absurd  precept  ? — Because 
the  love  of  God  is  a  positive  hindrance  to  conversion 
in  the  sacrament  of  penance.  But  why  should  the 
love  of  God  be  a  hindrance  to  conversion  and  recon- 
ciliation ? — Because  it  leads  to  painful  contrition 
for  sin,  as  committed  against  God.  But  why  should 
not  such  contrition  be  experienced  by  the  sinner? — 
Because  that  would  be  to  stamp  the  Christian  or 
evangelical  economy  as  inferior  to  the  Jewish  or 
legal — to  lay  the  Christian  under  a  yoke  more 
galling  and  severe  than  that  of  the  Jew.  How  so  ? 
— Because,  to  be  sure,  the  main  difference  between 
"the  Old  and  the  New  Commandments"  consists 
in  this,  that  whereas  a  man  under  the  former  was 
"obliged  to  love  God,"  under  the  latter  he  is  excused 
from  so  grievous  and  heavy  an  obligation  !  But  is 
not  this  a  burlesque  or  caricature  of  the  doctrine  ? 
Whether  it  be  so  or  not  I  leave  you  to  judge.  Here 
are  the  identical  words  of  Father  Merat.  "The 
evangelical  law,"  says  he,  "is  more  agreeable  than 
the  law  of  Moses,  in  that  it  takes  away  the  neces- 
sity which  there  was  under  the  law  of  having  con- 
trition, or  a  sorrow  for  sins,  animated  by  the  love 
of  God  ;  which  is  a  matter  of  no  small  difficulty." 

Does  this  strange  doctrine  need  any  confirma- 
tion ?  Then  hear  Father  Penthereau.  "The  law 
of  the  New  Testament,"  says  he,  "  is  a  law  of 
grace,  made  for  children,  and  not  for  slaves.  Is  it 
not  fitting  that  it  should  require  less  at  their  hands, 
and  that  God  on  his  part  should  give  more  ?  It  was 
reasonable,  therefore,  that  he  should  take  off  the 
heavy  and  difficult  obligation,  which  was   in   the 


44  THE   JESUITS. 

penal  law,  of  exercising  an  act  of  perfect  contrition 
(founded,  let  it  be  remembered,  on  the  love  of  God) 
in  order  to  be  justified." 

Is  this  not  explicit  enough  ?  Then  here  is  the 
supplemental  consideration  of  Father  Faber.  "  If 
perfect  contrition,"  says  he,  (viz.,  that  which  carries 
in  it  a  love  of  God  above  every  other  consideration,) 
"  were  necessary  in  the  sacrament,  we  Christians 
should  be  in  a  worse  condition  than  the  Jews  were 
before  Christ  came  into  the  world." 

Is  this  not  strong  enough  ?  Then  listen  to  Father 
De  Brielle  :  "  If  this  love  (i.  e.  of  God)  were  neces- 
sary in  the  sacrament,  the  way  of  salvation  would 
be  more  difficult  under  the  law  of  grace  than  under 
the  law  of  nature,  or  that  of  Moses." 

Does  the  whole  need  to  be  nailed  in  by  a  special 
Scripture  text  ?  Then  here  is  Father  Sirmond's 
comment  on  the  memorable  words  of  our  Lord  :  "  If 
the  Son,  therefore,  shall  make  you  free,  you  shall 
be  free  indeed."  "  Yea,"  says  he,  "we  shall  be 
free,  as  I  hope,  by  his  own  testimony,  even  from 
that  too  strict  obligation  which  some  would  lay 
upon  us,  of  loving  God,  in  the  point  of  merit." 

So,  by  the  Lord  Jesus  himself,  we  are  specially 
released  from  the  obligation,  the  old  covenant  bond- 
age, the  Mosaico-Jewish  slavery  of  loving  Go>l, 
his  and  our  Father,  and  of  serving  him  with  love  ! 
Is  any  tender  conscience  shocked  at  the  bold  aver- 
ment ?  Then  hear  the  solution  offered  by  Father 
Suarez.  "A  person,"  says  he,  "is  obliged  to  it 
(the  love  of  God)  at  a  certain  time.11  But  at  what 
time  he  does  not  know  ;  and,  adds  Father  Sirmond  : 
"  What  this  doctor  does  not  know,  I  can't  tell  who 
does."  Father  Lesseau,  however,  so  far  helps  to 
cJear  up  the  difficult  problem,  by  condescendingly 
informing  us,  in  the  negative  form,  when  God  is 
not  to  be  loved :  "  A  person  is  not  obliged,"  says 


THE   JESUITS.  45 

he,  "  to  love  God,  neither  upon  saints'  days,  nor  in 
the  hour  of  death,  nor  when  a  person  has  received 
any  special  favour  from  God,  nor  when  he  goes  to 
the  sacrament  of  baptism,  nor  when  he  is  obliged 
to  perform  any  act  of  contrition,  nor  when  he  is 
arrived  at  the  years  of  discretion,  nor  when  he  is 
under  a  sentence  of  martyrdom,  because  at  that 
time  attrition  is  sufficient." 

In  other  words,  at  no  period  of  this  world's  dura- 
tion, at  no  stage  of  human  life  from  the  cradle  to  the 
grave,  is  God — the  God  of  love,  whose  very  name 
and  nature  is  love — to  be  loved  by  his  ransomed 
and  redeemed  creatures  at  all !  Hence,  the  infer- 
ence is  inevitable — that,  if  he  is  ever  to  be  loved  at 
all,  or  in  any  degree,  it  must  be  somewhere  in  the 
invisible  world  of  spirits,  or  at  some  period  during 
the  future  lapse  of  eternal  ages  ! 

Having  thus  shown  how  effectually  ihejirst  and 
great  command,  which  compendiously  wraps  up  in 
itself  all  the  other  precepts  of  the  first  table  of  the 
law,  is  evaded,  violated,  and  evacuated  of  all  mean- 
ing by  the  Jesuits,  we  are  spared  the  necessity  of 
entering  into  further  details  ;  though,  if  time  permit- 
ted, it  would  be  easy  to  prove  the  same  thing  of  all 
of  them  separately  and  in  succession. 

We,  therefore,  pass  on  to  the  second  table.  It,  too, 
is  summarily  wrapped  up  in  the  one  other  com- 
mand, which  is  like  unto  the  first,  viz.,  "Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself."  And,  if  the  first 
was  made  void,  need  we  wonder  that  the  second 
should  be  made  void  too  ? 

In  the  beginning,  God  said  :  "Ye  shall  not  eat 
of  this  tree  ;  for  if  ye  do,  ye  shall  surely  die."  The 
subtle  tempter  dared  to  contradict  his  Maker,  say- 
ing :  "  Ye  may  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  ;  and  if 
ye  do,  ye  shall  not  surely  die."  So  here,  the  great 
Teacher,  Jehovah- Jesus,  said  :   "  Thou  shalt  love 


46  THE   JESUITS. 

the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  soul,  and 
strength,  and  mind."  The  subtle  doctors  of  Jesuit- 
ism presume  to  contradict  him,  saying  :  "  Do  not 
love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  soul, 
and  strength,  and  mind  ;  it  is  not  necessary  that  you 
should  love  him  at  all ;  it  is  quite  enough  that  you 
do  not  positively  hate  him." 

So,  again,  with  respect  to  the  second  command, 
which  is  like  unto  the  first,  Jehovah- Jesus  said  ; 
"Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself;"  and 
again:  "A  new  commandment  give  I  to  you,  That 
ye  love  one  another."  Also,  the  inspired  Apostle 
Paul:  "He  that  loveth  another  hath  fulfilled  the 
law;"  and  the  inspired  Apostle  John:  "He  that 
hath  not  love,  abideth  in  death." 

But  what  says  Father  Tambourin  ?  "  I  think  it," 
says  he,  "  altogether  certain  that  there  is  no  obliga- 
tion to  love  him,  (i.  e.  your  neighbour,)  by  any  inter- 
nal act  or  motion  expressly  tending  towards  him." 
Upon  which  Father  Lamy  steps  in  with  an  argu- 
ment, at  once  subtile  and  cunning.  "  We  are  not 
obliged,"  says  he,  "by  virtue  of  this  command,  to 
love  our  neighbour  otherwise  or  better  than  our- 
selves. Now  we  are  not  bound  to  love  ourselves 
with  an  internal  action  of  love  ;  therefore  we  are  not 
under  the  obligation  of  such  love  to  our  neighbour." 
Nay,  more,  shouts  Father  Bauni :  "  We  may  (not 
only  not  love,  but  may)  wish  harm  to  our  neighbour 
without  sin,  when  we  are  pushed  upon  it  by  some 
good  motives." 

Do  3'ou  wish,  next,  to  know  what  may  those 
"  good  motives"  be,  which,  in  the  estimation  of  a  Je- 
suit, may  completely  justify  you  not  only  in  not 
loving,  but  in  positively  hating,  ay,  and  wishing 
harm  to  your  neighbour?  Here  is  an  express  ex- 
ample furnished  by  Bonacina.  "  A  mother,"  says 
he,    "is  guiltless   who  wishes   the   death  of  her 


THE    JESUITS.  47 

daughters,  when,  by  reason  of  their  deformity  or 
poverty,  she  cannot  marry  them  to  her  heart's  de- 
sire." Here  is  a  principle  which,  if  carried  out, 
would  soon  reduce  men  to  a  condition  beneath  that 
of  the  wild  beasts.  "Who,"  asked  the  Roman  Satir- 
ist, "  ever  saw  lions  or  wild  boars  kill  and  worry  one 
another  to  pieces?  The  very  tigers,  as  ravenous 
as  they  are,  maintain  an  inviolable  peace  with  their 
own  kind  ;  and  so  do  the  bears."  But,  if  it  be  law- 
ful— from  motives  of  base,  selfish,  grovelling,  tem- 
poral interest — for  mothers  to  desire  the  death  of 
their  own  daughters,  a  fortiori,  how  much  more 
lawful  must  it  be  to  desire  the  death  of  other  human 
beings,  when  we  may  thereby  be  gainers  ?  And 
how  can  the  lawfulness  of  such  barbarous  desire  be 
compatible  with  the  love  of  our  neighbour  ? 

From  the  general  principle  of  the  love  of  our 
neighbour,  we  may  now  take  a  rapid  glance  at  some 
of  the  particulars. 

The  second  table  of  the  law  begins  with  the. 
honouring  of  parents,  including  all  the  duties 
of  respect,  reverence,  filial  gratitude,  and  needful 
support. 

But  what  says  Father  Fagundez  ?  According  to 
him,  there  are  circumstances  in  which  children  may 
not  only  not  honour  their  parents,  but  may  even 
justifiably  act  the  part  of  parricides  towards  them. 
"  It  is  lawful,"  says  he,  "  for  a  son  to  rejoice  at  the 
murder  of  his  parent  (and,  as  if  that  wrere  not 
enough,  mark  what  is  added),  committed  by  him' 
self,  in  a  state  of  drunkenness,  on  account  of  the 
great  riches  thence  acquired  by  inheritance." 
"  This  doctrine  of  Father  Fagundez,"  adds  Gobat, 
"  which  may  seem  a  paradox,  is  true  in  theory, 
although  it  may  be  dangerous  in  practice." 

Again :  "  Christian  and  Catholic  sons  may  ac- 
cuse their  fathers  of  the  crime  of  heresy,  if  they 


48  THE   JESUITS. 

wish  to  turn  them  from  the  earth,  although  they 
know  that  their  parents  may  be  burned  with  fire, 
and  put  to  death  for  it."  "  And  not  only  may  they 
refuse  them  food,  if  they  attempt  to  turn  them  from 
the  Catholic  faith,  but  they  may  also  justly  kill 
them."  Yea,  even  when  the  father  is  a  sound  and 
consistent  Papist,  Tambourin  teaches  how  a  son 
may  not  only  be  exempted  from  the  duty  of  honour- 
ing him,  but  may  even  be  excused  for  desiring  his 
death  !  "If,"  says  he,  "you  desire  the  death  of 
your  father,  with  a  proviso,  the  answer  is  plain,  that 
you  may  do  it  lawfully."  Now,  what  sort  of  pro- 
viso does  he  mean  ?  Here  is  his  own  explanation  : 
The  son  has  only  to  say  to  himself:  "  I  desire  the 
death  of  my  father,  not  as  an  evil  to  him,  but  as  a 
good,  or  cause  of  good  to  myself,  viz.,  because  by 
such,  his  death,  I  shall  succeed  to  his  estate;"  only 
let  a  son  be  enabled  to  hold  this  language,  and  he 
may  then  honestly  and  lawfully  wish  for  his  father's 
death ! 

Is  stealing  expressly  forbidden  by  the  divine 
law?  Were  the  words,  "Thou  shalt  not  steal," 
thundered  from  the  heights  of  Sinai  ?  Here,  how- 
ever, is  an  ample  indulgence  at  least  for  small  thefts 
or  petty  larcenies,  with  the  privilege  of  repeating 
them  a  number  of  times  without  being  obliged  to 
make  restitution.  "  Exhort  servants,"  says  the 
apostle,  "to  be  obedient  unto  their  masters,  not 
purloining,  but  showing  all  good  fidelity."  "Ser- 
vants," says  Valerius  Reginald,  "are  excused  both 
from  sin  and  restitution,  if  they  only  take  (from 
their  master's  property)  in  equitable  compensation." 
"  It  is  not  a  mortal  sin,"  says  Emmanuel  Sa,  "  to 
take  secretly  from  him  who  would  give  if  he  were 
asked,  although  he  may  be  unwilling  that  it  should 
be  taken  secretly:  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  restore. 
It  is  not  theft,  to  take  a  small  thing  secretly  from  a 


THE   JESUITS.  49 

husband  or  a  father ;  but  if  it  be  considerable,  it 
must  be  restored.  He  who,  from  airy  urgent  ne- 
cessity, or  without  causing  much  loss,  takes  wood 
from  another  man's  pile,  is  not  obliged  to  restore  it. 
He  who  has  stolen  small  things  from  any  one  at 
different  times,  is  obliged  to  make  restitution,  when 
they  amount  to  a  considerable  sum,  although  some 
persons  deny  it  (t.  e.,  the  obligation  to  make  resti- 
tution) with  probability." 

And  now,  ye  merchants,  here  is  a  license  for  you 
— a  full  and  free  license  to  be  dishonest  and  fraudu- 
lent in  your  commercial  transactions.  The  apostle, 
it  is  true,  exhorted,  saying :  "  This  is  the  will  of 
God,  that  no  man  go  beyond  or  defraud  his  brother 
in  any  matter  ;  because  that  the  Lord  is  the  avenger 
of  all  such."  "  A  man,"  on  the  other  hand,  says 
Father  Tolet,  supposing  a  special  case,  "  a  man, 
for  instance,  cannot  sell  his  wine  at  a  fair  price, 
either  on  account  of  the  injustice  of  the  judge,  or 
through  fraud  of  the  purchasers,  who  have  agreed 
among  themselves  to  be  few  in  number  to  lower  the 
price ; — then,  (mark  what  follows,)  then,  he  may 
diminish  his  measure,  or  mix  a  little  water  with 
his  wine,  and  sell  it  for  pure  wine  of  full  measure, 
demanding  the  full  price,  provided  only  that  he 
does  not  tell  a  lie,  (as  if  the  lying  action  did  not 
speak  louder  than  would  the  lying  word ;)  which, 
if  he  does,  it  will  neither  be  a  dangerous  nor  a 
mortal  sin,  neither  will  it  oblige  him  to  make  resti- 
tution." 

But,  lest  any  dishonest  person  might  be  discon- 
certed by  the  apparent  proviso  against  M  telling  a 
lie,"  the  same  author  elsewhere  hastens  to  his  re- 
lief; and  labours  to  show  him,  and  all  others,  how, 
in  utter  defiance  of  the  ninth  commandment,  they 
may  all  forswear,  or  perjure  themselves  with  the 
utmost  impunity.  The  case  of  an  accused  person 
5 


50  THE    JESUITS. 

is  supposed,  and  the  question  is  started,  whether, 
when  he  is  pressed,  he  may  reply,  "  I  have  not 
done  it" — or,  that  he  "had  no  accomplices,"  al- 
though he  had?  The  reply  is  in  the  affirmative — 
that  he  may  ;  only  he  must  be  careful  to  make  his 
denial  with  a  mental  reservation — "  as  if,"  says  the 
Jesuit  father,  "  he  intended  to  say,  « I  have  not 
done  it' — meaning  (in  his  own  mind)  '  since  he  had 
been  in  prison  :'  and,  »  I  have  had  no  accomplices' 
— understanding  (in  his  own  mind)  'in  other 
crimes,'  or  some  such  meaning." 

The  same  recipe  for  equivocation  and  lying  is 
thus  given  by  another  Jesuit,  Filliucius,  one  of  their 
most  famous  doctors,  and  the  Pope's  penitentiary. 
A  person  is  supposed  to  be  accused  of  having  ate 
something  forbidden.  "  With  what  precaution," 
asks  the  father,  "  is  equivocation  to  be  used  in  such 
a  case  ? — When  we  begin,  for  instance,  to  say,  •  I 
swear,'  we  must  insert,  in  a  subdued  tone,  the 
mental  restriction,  « that  to-day,1  and  then  continue 
aloud,  <I  have  not  eaten  such  a  thing."  " 

Let  us  apply  this  recipe  to  another  and  a  pre- 
cisely parallel  case.  On  crossing  the  plain,  I  see  a 
ruffian  soldier  knock  down  a  gentleman,  and  rob 
him  of  his  watch  and  money.  I  am  summoned  to 
give  evidence  at  the  criminal  sessions.  When 
asked  if  I  saw  the  prisoner  commit  the  deed,  I 
may,  according  to  the  Jesuit  father,  answer  aloud, 
in  the  hearing  of  the  whole  court :  "  0  no,  I  did 
not  see  hirrC1 — provided  that  mentally,  or  in  a  sub- 
dued tone,  heard  by  no  one,  I  say  to  myself,  "  leap 
into  the  river,"  or  "flyover  the  monument,"  or 
"  seize  the  Emperor  of  China,"  or  "  grasp  the 
pole-star  with  his  right  hand." 

If  such  a  principle  were  once  introduced  amongst 
us,  would  it  not  at  once  put  an  end  to  all  fair  deal- 
ings— to  all  justice — to  all  confidence  between  man 


THE    JESUITS.  51 

and  man?  for,  who  could  ever  know  or  conjecture 
what  was  passing  in  the  mind  of  another,  or  whether 
his  real  meaning  was  not  exactly  the  opposite  of 
what  his  words  appeared  to  indicate  ?  The  same 
Jesuit  author  (Filliucius)  thus  proceeds  still  more 
systematically  to  teach  the  art  of  deceiving  men  by 
false  promises — the  art  of  swearing  a  thing  to  be 
black  when  we  know  it  is  white,  and  yet  our  pro- 
mise be  still  reckoned  sincere,  and  our  oath  sacred. 
"The  man,"  says  he,  "who  has  externally  pro- 
mised any  thing,  (suppose  a  sum  of  money,)  but, 
without  an  intention  of  promising  ;  that  same 
person  being  asked  whether  he  made  such  a  pro- 
mise, may  deny  it ;  meaning  to  himself  that  he  did 
not  make  a  promise  that  icas  binding.  Nay,  he 
may  go  much  further ;  for,  he  may  even  swear  to 
it."  Tambourin  goes  beyond  this  latitude,  and 
excuses  even  those  from  keeping  their  word  and 
oath  who  afterwards  make  a  doubt  whether  they 
intended  to  oblige  themselves  to  keep  such  word  or 
such  oath.  "  Though  you  are  sure,"  says  he, 
"  that  you  have  made  a  vow  or  an  oath,  it  is  pro- 
bable, in  my  opinion,  that  you  are  not  bound  by  it, 
if  you  doubt  whether  you  had  an  intention  to  oblige 
yourself  to  stand  to  it."  Not  satisfied  with  this 
extension  of  the  license,  Valentia  bravely  declares, 
"  that  even  though  one  made  a  promise  with  an  in- 
tention of  being  obliged  to  it,  the  obligation  does  not 
take  place,  provided  there  ivas  no  design  to  perform 
the  thing  promised  ;  because  the  vow  becomes  null 
and  void  if  you  have  no  will  to  put  it  in  execu- 
tion." As  if  all  this  were  not  enough,  Sanchez 
must  come  forward  with  statements  still  more  am- 
plified and  explicit.  "If,"  says  he,  "a  man 
should  swear  that  he  has  not  done  a  thing  which  in 
reality  he  has,  meaning  some  other  thing  within 
his  own  breast  which  he  has  not  done,  or  some 


52  THE   JESUITS. 

other  day  than  that,  given  for  the  thing  done — 
suppose  it  be  before  he  ivas  born,  or  any  such  true 
circumstance — he  is  neither  perjured  nor  a  liar. 
And  this  is  very  convenient  to  hide  many  things. 
But  the  just  cause  of  making  such  ambiguities  is, 
as  often  as  it  may  be  necessary  or  useful  for  the  de- 
fence of  one's  person,  honour,  or  estate.  So  a  man 
may  lawfully  say  he  did  not  kill  Peter  ;  meaning 
privately  another  man  of  that  name,  or  that  he  did 
not  do  it  before  he  was  bom.'''  And  last  of  all,  in 
order  to  banish  any  scruples  that  might  still  keep 
lingering  about  the  threshold  of  weak  or  tender 
consciences,  the  same  author  boldly  propounds  the 
notable  art  of  "  swearing  by  a  double  entendre'''' — 
of  swearing  and  not  swearing  in  the  same  breath — 
of  swearing  falsely  without  being  perjured.  The 
secret  is  a  curious  one,  but  very  simple ;  for  the 
whole  mystery  consists  in  cutting  off  the  initial 
consonant  of  a  single  word.  "When,"  says  he, 
"  one  goes  to  swear,  or  when  one  is  pressed  to  take 
an  oath,  say,  Uro,  which  signifies,  1  burn,  instead 
of  Juro,  1  swear;  which,  whether  you  burn  or  not, 
would  be  but  a  venial  lie  at  most."  Is  it  a  breach 
of  well-principled  charity  to  conclude  that  surely 
the  force  of  shameless  impudence  can  no  further 
go  ?  But  it  seems  that  it  may  go  even  further  still. 
Is  not  murder  one  of  the  most  fearful  of  crimes, 
alike  forbidden  by  the  laws  of  God  and  man  ?  We 
have  already  seen  the  unnatural  license  allowed  in 
the  case  of  children  towards  their  parents  ;  we  have 
now  to  show  that  the  license  has  been  so  widely 
extended  as  to  embrace  almost  all  imaginable  rela- 
tionships. "  It  is  lawful,"  says  Fagundez,  "  for  us 
to  kill  a  man,  when,  if  we  kill  him  not,  another  will 
kill  us."  Which  aphorism  is  thus  illustrated  by 
Valerius  Reginald  :  "If  you  are  preparing  to  give 
false  evidence  against  me,  by  which  I  should  receive 


THE    JESUITS. 


53 


sentence  of  death,  and  I  have  no  other  means  of 
escape,  it  is  lawful  for  me  to  kill  you,  since  I  should 
otherwise  be  killed  myself;  for  it  would  be  imma- 
terial, in  such  a  case,  whether  you  killed  me  with 
your  own  or  another  man's  sword  ;  as,  for  instance, 
by  that  of  the  executioner." 

Again,  says  Fagundez :  "  If  a  judge  had  been 
unjust,  (and  what  real  criminal  is  ever  wining  to 
confess  that  he  is  just  ?)  and  had  proceeded  (in  trial) 
without  adhering  to  the  course  of  the  law,  then  cer- 
tainly might  the  accused  defend  himself  by  assault- 
ing, and  even  killing  the  judge."  "It  will  be 
lawful  for  an  ecclesiastic,"  says  Francis  Amicus, 
"  or  one  of  a  religious  order,  to  kill  a  calumniator." 
"  The  calumniator,"  adds  Airult,  somewhat  soften- 
ing the  harshness  of  this  abrupt  judgment,  "  should 
first  be  ivarned  that  he  desist  from  the  slander ;  and 
if  he  will  not,  he  should  be  killed,  not  openly,  on 
account  of  the  scandal,  but  secretly."  What  is  this, 
in  plain  language,  but  an  unlimited  license  for  as- 
sassination ? 

The  lawfulness,  yea,  the  meritoriousness  of  mur- 
dering heretic  (i\  c.  Protestant  or  non-Romish) 
princes,  or  even  Romish  princes  not  sufficiently 
favourable  to  Romish  interests,  is  inculcated  in 
every  imaginable  form.  Of  a  prince  of  this  de- 
scription John  Mariana  says  :  "  I  shall  never  consi- 
der that  man  to  have  done  wrong,  who,  favouring 
the  public  wishes,  would  attempt  to  kill  him." 
Again  :  "  To  put  them  (».  e.  such  princes)  to  death, 
is  not  only  lawful,  but  a  laudable  and  glorious  ac- 
tion." Once  more:  "It  is  a  glorious  thing  to  ex- 
terminate this  pestilent  and  mischievous  race  from 
the  community  of  men."  "  These,"  says  James 
Keller,  "  may  certainly  be  put  to  death  by  any  one 
who  has  the  courage  and  inclination  to  kill  them." 
"Among  many  other  things,"  says  Francis  Suarez, 
5* 


54  THE    JESUITS. 

"comprised  in  these  words,  (viz.,  feed  my  sheep,) 
and  in  the  power  which  they  convey,  this  also  is 
included,  destroy,  proscribe,  depose,  heretic  kings, 
who  will  not  be  corrected,  and  who  are  injurious  to 
their  subjects  in  things  which  concern  the  Catholic 
faith."  M  It  is  a  question,"  says  James  Gretser,  still 
more  broadly,  "in  the  schools,  whether  it  is  lawful 
to  kill  an  innocent  person  ?"  To  which  he  replies : 
"That  the  Jesuits,  in  this  question,  incline  to  the 
affirmative  rather  than  to  the  negative,  their  writings 
sufficiently  show." 

Hitherto  I  have  been  enabled  to  proceed  with 
separate  quotations  to  show  how  every  command- 
ment of  the  decalogue  may  be  violated  with  impu- 
nity. But  there  is  one,  as  to  which  I  must  beg  to 
be  excused  for  not  entering  on  it  at  all.  It  is  the 
seventh.  How  to  violate  it  in  its  letter  and  spirit — 
in  thought,  word,  and  deed — in  every  imaginable, 
and,  apart  from  Jesuit  imaginations,  every  unim- 
aginable form — is  pointed  out,  in  their  writings,  with 
a  minuteness,  a  loathsomeness,  and  a  pruriency, 
compared  with  which  the  most  filthy  passages  in 
the  grossest  of  the  heathen  poets  and  satirists  bear 
the  stamp  and  impress  of  relative  refinement.  It  is, 
in  fact,  a  bottomless  abyss  of  obscenities,  nudities, 
criminal  liberties,  and  defiling  turpitudes — an  abyss, 
from  which  I  most  gladly  hasten  away,  as  from  one 
whose  very  brink  is  thickly  fringed  ali  around  with, 
pollution. 

At  the  outset  you  were  constituted  into  a  jury. 
You  have  heard  the  charge  preferred  against  the 
morality  of  the  Jesuits.  You  have  now  listened  to  a 
portion  of  the  evidence,  drawn  forth,  if  not  from  the 
lips,  at  least  from  the  pens  of  Jesuit  witnesses. 
What  say  ye,  then  ?  Has  the  charge  been  substan- 
tiated, or  not  ?  And  is  your  verdict,  that  of  "  Pro- 
ven," or  "  Not  Proven  ?"    Substantiated  beyond  all 


THE    JESUITS. 


55 


debate — Proven,  beyond  the  possibility  of  question — 
must  surely  be  the  prompt  and  simultaneous  re- 
sponse of  every  candid  mind. 

But  lest,  as  a  Protestant  jury,  ye  may  be  accused 
of  partiality,  let  me  summon  into  your  presence  a 
jury  of  other  men — men,  not  Protestants  at  all,  but 
rigid  and  consistent  Romanists — men,  therefore, 
"who,"  as  has  been  justly  remarked,  "could  have 
no  hatred  of  the  Jesuits  for  being  the  allies  of  Rome, 
seeing  that  they  themselves  were  rigid  Romanists — 
men,  who  could  have  no  motive  in  bearing  false 
witness  against  the  Jesuits,  seeing  that  they  could 
earn  nothing  by  it ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  jeoparded 
their  property,  and  periled  their  life  and  liberty — 
men,  whose  testimony  we  may  consider  as  the  re- 
luctant but  unavoidable  evidence  of  individuals 
tempted  by  every  consideration  to  judge  most  leni- 
ently, and  describe  most  favourably,  the  character 
of  the  order  brought  to  trial." 

From  an  immense  multitude,  we  single  out  the 
following : — 

In  1642,  we  find  a  work  by  the  Jesuit  Bauni, 
who  had  been  professor  of  moral  theology  at  the 
Jesuit  college,  denounced  "  as  calculated  to  encou- 
rage licentiousness  and  the  corruption  of  manners  ; 
as  violating  natural  equity,  and  the  rights  of  man, 
and  tolerating  blasphemy,  usury,  simony,  and  many 
ether  enormous  crimes,  as  offences  of  no  magni- 
tude." And  by  whom,  think  you,  was  this  con- 
demnatory sentence  pronounced  ?  By  an  assembly 
of  Romish  clergy  holden  at  Nantes  ! 

In  1663,  the  Jesuits  put  forth  a  still  more  impor- 
tant work  in  defence  of  their  moral  opinions,  pub- 
lished by  express  permission  of  the  superiors.  In 
1664,  its  object  was,  in  these  terms,  declared  to  be, 
"  not  merely  to  revive  all  the  errors  and  impieties 
of  the  apology  of  the  casuists,  but  to  surpass  them 


56  THE   JESUITS. 

in  so  great  a  degree  that  it  might  be  considered  the 
common-sewer  of  all  the  filth  and  impiety  of  which 
the  human  mind  is  capable."  By  whom  was  the 
crushing  declaration  made  ? — By  Marais,  a  Romish 
divine,  publicly  before  the  University  of  Paris  !  In 
another  censure,  pronounced  in  1663s  on  the  same 
work,  it  was  declared  that  "  their  (the  censurers') 
respect  for  decency  prevented  them  from  noticing 
the  abominations  which  it  contained  on  the  subject 
of  chastity."  Who  pronounced  so  grave  and  severe 
a  sentence  1 — The  Romish  Faculty  of  Theology  in 
the  University  of  Paris  !  In  another  judgment  on 
the  same  work  it  is  averred,  "  that  it  abounded  in 
propositions  fit  only  to  pervert  all  Christian  morals, 
and  that  the  Faculty  of  Theology,  observing  homi- 
cide, theft,  simony,  usury,  and  other  crimes  which 
cannot  be  publicly  named,  expressly  sanctioned  by 
these  modern  casuists,  had  considered  it  their  duty 
to  oppose  the  spread  of  such  destructive  doctrines." 
Who  supplied  this  fearful  portrait  ? — The  Romish 
advocates  of  the  Romish  monarch  Louis  XIV  ! 

Here  is  another  portraiture  of  their  principles 
and  practices  :  "It  cannot  be  but  th-at  the  licentious- 
ness introduced  by  the  Jesuits,  of  which  the  three 
leading  features  are  falsehood,  murder,  and  perjury, 
should  not  give  a  new  character  to  the  morals  of 
the  externi,  (or  all  who  are  not  of  their  Society,)  as 
well  as  to  the  external  government  of  the  nostri,  or 
their  own  body.  In  fact,  since  these  religieuses 
have  introduced  into  Christian  and  civil  society 
those  perverted  dogmas  which  render  murder  inno- 
cent, which  sanctify  falsehood,  authorize  perjury, 
deprive  the  laws  of  their  power,  destroy  the  sub- 
mission of  subjects — allow  individuals  the  liberty 
of  calumniating,  killing,  lying,  and  forswearing 
themselves,  as  their  advantage  may  dictate — 
which  remove  the  fear  of  divine  and  human  laws, 


THE    JESUITS. 


57 


and  permit  a  man  to  redress  his  own  grievances 
without  applying  to  the  magistrate — it  is  easy  to 
see,  without  much  penetration,  that  Christian  and 
civil  society  could  not  subsist  without  a  miracle." 
Worse  and  worse,  it  Avill  be  said,  by  the  Romanist. 
This  must  be  a  libel — yea,  the  libellous  caricature 
of  an  enemy.  No  such  thing ;  the  author  happens 
to  be  none  other  than  his  most  Catholic  Majesty,  the 
Romish  King  of  Portugal ! 

Our  next  witness,  or  rather  batch  of  witnesses, 
will  be  one  of  the  mightiest  corporate  bodies  in 
Christendom.  In  a  public  memorial  of  this  body, 
published  in  1643,  they  declared  themselves  ready 
to  prove,  that  "there  is  no  article  in  religion  which 
the  Jesuits  have  not  corrupted,  and  do  not  daily 
corrupt,  by  erroneous  novelties ;  that  the  scholastic 
theology  has  been  depraved  by  the  dangerous 
opinions  of  their  writers,  who  have  had  the  appro- 
bation, or  at  least  the  connivance,  (mark  this,)  of 
the  whole  Society ;  that  Christian,  morality  had 
become  a  body  of  problematical  opinions,  since 
their  Society  had  undertaken,  by  a  general  under- 
standing, to  accommodate  it  to  the  luxury  of  the 
age ;  that  the  laws  of  God  had  been  sophisticated 
by  their  unheard-of  subtleties  ;  that  there  was  no 
longer  any  difference  between  vice  and  virtue ;  that, 
by  a  base  indulgence,  they  promised  impunity  to 
the  most  flagrant  crimes ;  that  there  was  no  con- 
science, however  erroneous,  which  might  not  obtain 
peace,  if  it  would  confide  in  them ;  and  that,  in 
short,  their  doctrines,  inimical  to  all  order,  had 
equally  resisted  the  power  of  kings  and  the  authority 
of  the  hierarchy."  Nor  is  this  all.  With  increas- 
ing emphasis  they  thus  proceed:  "If  the  light 
which  God  has  placed  in  all  reasonable  minds,  in 
order  to  show  the  distinction  between  purity  and 
iniquity,  were  so  far  extinguished  that  such  a  per- 


58  THE    JESUITS. 

nicious  theology  could  be  universally  received — in 
that  case,  deserts  and  forests  would  be  preferable  to 
cities  ;  and  society  with  wild  beasts,  who  have  only 
their  natural  arms,  would  be  better  than  with  men 
who,  in  addition  to  the  violence  of  their  passions, 
would  be  instructed,  (mark  the  terrible  energy  of  the 
expression,)  instructed  by  this  doctrine  of  devih  to 
dissimulate  and  feign,  and  to  counterfeit  the  cha- 
racters of  intimate  friends,  in  order  to  destroy  others 
with  the  greater  impunity."  And,  as  if  this  were 
not  enough,  still  a  little  further  on  they  reiterate  the 
fearful  sentence,  saying :  "It  is  the  device  of  the 
great  enemy  of  souls  and  the  spirit  of  the  world" 
And  what  body  is  it  that  has  left  on  record  so  ter- 
rible a  verdict  against  the  morality  of  the  Jesuits  ? 
An  intemperate  assembly  of  hot-headed  Protestants  ? 
No  ;  but  the  intensely  Romish  University  of  Paris ! 
Or,  if  there  be,  apart  from  Rome  itself,  another 
witness,  or  band  of  witnesses,  more  competent  still, 
it  is  surely  to  be  found  in  the  highest  tribunal  of 
Popish  France.  Here,  then,  is  its  decision,  re- 
corded upwards  of  a  century  later,  (in  1762  :)  "The 
Court  has  ordained  that,  the  passages  extracted 
from  the  books  of  one  hundred  and  forty-seven 
Jesuit  authors  having  been  verified,  a  collated  copy 
shall  be  presented  to  his  majesty,  that  he  may  be 
made  acquainted  with  the  wickedness  of  the  doc- 
trine constantly  held  by  the  Jesuits,  from  the  in- 
stitution of  their  Society  to  the  present  moment, 
together  with  the  approbation  of  their  theologians, 
the  permission  of  superiors  and  generals,  and  the 
praise  of  other  members  of  the  said  Society — a  doc- 
trine, (mark  the  clearness  and  strength  of  the 
language,)  a  doctrine  authorizing  robbery,  lying, 
perjury,  impurity — all  passions  and  all  crimes ; 
inculcating  homicide,  parricide,  and  regicide  ;  over- 
turning Religion,  in  order  to  substitute  in  her  stead 


THE    JESUITS. 


59 


Superstition  ;  and  thereby  sanctioning  magic,  blas- 
phemy, irreligion  and  idolatry.  And  his  majesty 
shall  be  most  humbly  entreated  to  consider  what 
results  from  instruction  so  pernicious."  Can  any 
decision  be  "more  grave,  more  formal,  or  in  evi- 
dence more  authentic"  than  this  ?  And  yet  it  is 
the  unbiassed  judgment  of  the  highest  judicial 
assembly  in  France — it  is  the  Parliament  of  Paris — 
that  has  thus  boldly  arraigned,  and  thus  sweep- 
ingiy  condemned,  the  morality  of  the  Jesuits  ! 

VVhat,  then,  shall  we  say  of  a  system,  against 
which  so  fearful  a  charge  has  been  established  out 
of  the  writings  of  Jesuit  authors  themselves,  yea, 
and  admitted  to  have  been  established  by  the 
highest  and  most  competent  Romish  authorities? — 
a  system  which,  as  has  been  demonstrated,  makes 
void  and  practically  nullifies  every  commandment 
of  the  decalogue,  every  precept  of  Christianity  ? 
How  shall  we  desigifate  it  ?  Is  not  this  pre-emi- 
nently the  " deceivableness  of  unrighteousness?" 
Is  not  this  pre-eminently  "  the  Antichrist — the  Son 
of  Perdition  ?"  Where,  if  not  here,  shall  we  find 
the  "Lawless  One"  who  opposeth  and  exalteth 
himself  above  all  that  is  called  God,  or  that  is  wor- 
shipped ?  Where,  if  not  here,  shall  we  discover 
"  the  Man  of  Sin,"  who  "speaks  lies  in  hypocrisy, 
having  his  conscience  seared  with  a  hot  iron?" 
Where,  if  not  here,  shall  we  ever  be  able  to  detect 
"  the  Mystery  of  Iniquity  ?"  Or,  if  it  be  lawful, 
not  in  mere  wantonness  and  il  liberality,  but  in 
deepest  humiliation  and  sorrow,  to  coin  a  new  term 
— a  harsh  and  forbidding  one,  we  admit,  yet  a  term 
briefly  descriptive  of  a  fearful  substantive  reality — 
might  we  not  say  in  truth,  as  well  as  in  charity,  for 
charity  ever  rejoiceth  in  the  truth,  that  the  system, 
as  already  more  than  suggested  by  the  Romish 
University  of  Paris,  is  one  of  pure  and  undiluted 


60  THE    JESUITS. 

«*  devilism  ?"  For  what  is  the  most  characteristic 
function,  the  most  distinguishing  attribute  and  voca- 
tion of  the  prince  of  darkness  ?  Is  it  not  to  despise, 
condemn,  and  practically  abrogate  every  command- 
ment of  the  eternal  God  ?  Is  it  not  to  strive,  with 
might  and  main,  to  teach,  tempt,  or  instigate  ail 
others  to  do  so  too  ?  And  is  not  this  the  ver)r  func- 
tion, attribute,  and  vocation  which  has  been  (suc- 
cessfully, we  doubt  not)  charged  home  upon  the 
Jesuits  and  their  execrable  morality  ?  And  if  so, 
why  should  we  scruple  or  hesitate,  rather,  why 
should  we  not  boldly  and  fearlessly,  honestly  and 
truthfully,  learn  to  nominate  and  distinguish  things 
by  their  proper  names?  Or,  if  there  be  aught 
more  fiendish  or  Satanic  in  the  proceeding  still,  is  it 
not  this — that  the  author  of  all  ill  should,  in  utter 
contempt  of  Heaven's  majesty,  or  rather,  in  the 
rampant  insolence  of  derision,  seize  on  Heaven's 
laws,  and  pervert  them  into  tire  instruments  of  their 
own  infraction — seize  on  the  very  ordinances  and 
statutes  which  the  eternal  King  had  ordained  for 
the  harmony  of  the  moral  universe,  and  turn  them 
into  the  organs  of  a  flagitious  confusion  of  all  moral 
distinctions — seize  on  the  very  principles  and  ele- 
ments which  a  gracious  Father  had  designed  for  life 
to  his  children,  and  transmute  them  into  a  terrible 
enginery  of  death  ?  Has  not  this  been  actually  and 
emphatically  the  highest  triumph  of  the  grand 
adversary  of  God  and  man  ?  And  has  it  not,  in  a 
way  proportionable  to  their  ability,  been  the  fatal 
triumph  of  the  Jesuits  too  ?  Again,  then,  we  ask, 
in  downright  earnestness  we  ask,  why  shrink,  in 
craven  cowardice,  from  calling  things  by  their  pro- 
per names  ? 

For  the  sake  of  illustration  and  variety,  let  us  re- 
mind you  of  one  of  the  most  striking  conceptions,  in 
that  most  striking  and  wonderful  of  all  heroic  songs 


THE   JESUITS.  61 

— the  "Paradise  Lost."  The  arch-enemy  is  sup- 
posed to  have  reached  the  seat  of  primeval  inno- 
cence. It  was  indeed  a  blissful  bower,  compared 
with  which  the  "sweet  grove  of  Daphne,"  with  its 
"  inspired  Castalian  spring,"  or  the  "  spicy  shore  of 
Araby  the  Blest,"  breathing  "  Sabean  odours,"  is 
not  worthy  of  being  named.  But,  blissful  though 
it  was,  there  the  arch-felon  "  saw,  unde lighted,  all 
delight."  Animated  by  one  master-spirit — even 
that  of  malice  and  desperate  revenge;  and  bent  on 
one  exclusive  object — even  that  of  ruining  man  and 
dishonouring  God — what  to  him  were  all  the  beau- 
ties and  the  glories  of  "  delicious  Paradise  ? — its 
gentle  gales,  which, 

"Fanning  their  odoriferous  wings,  dispensed 
Native  perfumes,  and  whisper' d  whence  they  stole 
Those  balmy  spoils  ; — 
Its  trees  of  noblest  kind, 

blooming  ambrosial  fruit 

Of  vegetable  gold  ; — 

Its  sapphire  founts,  with  crisped  brooks,  that, 
Rolling  on  orient  pearl  and  sands  of  gold, 
Ran  nectar." 

These,  these,  and  all  the  wilderness  of  sweets  so 
thickly  strown  around,  for  him  had  no  charms. 
Passing  them  by,  with  lofty  disdain,  he  pounces  at 
once  on  the  tree  of  life — "  the  middle  tree,  and  high- 
est there  that  grew."  On  it  he  sat — "  sat  like  a 
cormorant."  But  for  what  end  sat  he  there  ?  To 
regain  therefrom  true  life  for  himself,  and  the  means 
of  dispensing  it  to  others  ? — Oh,  no  ! — But  there  he 
sat — sat,  actually 


devisinsr  death 


To  them  that  lived;  nor  on  the  virtue  thought 
Of  that  life-giving  plant,  but  only  used 
For  prospect  what,  well  used,  had  been  the  pledge 
Of  immortality." 


0 


62  THE   JESUITS. 

Now,  is  not  this  the  very  picture  and  counterpart 
of  the  proceedings  of  "  the  Society  of  Jesus  ?"  Is 
not  revelation  a  radiant  bower?  Of  the  whole  of  its 
contents,  may  we  not  truly  predicate  what  has  been 
so  nobly  expressed  of  a  part  I — "  Indited,  as  they 
undoubtedly  were,"  says  the  saintly  Home,  "  under 
the  influence  of  Him  to  whom  all  hearts  are  known, 
and  all  secrets  foreknown,  they  suit  mankind  in  all 
situations,  grateful  as  the  manna  which  descended 
from  above,  and  which  conformed  itself  to  every 
palate.  The  fairest  productions  of  human  art,  after 
a  few  perusals,  like  gathered  flowers,  wither  in  our 
hands,  and  lose  their  fragrancy  ;  but  these  unfading 
plants  of  Paradise  become,  as  we  are  accustomed  to 
them,  still  more  and  more  beautiful ;  their  bloom 
appears  to  be  daily  heightened,  fresh  odours  are 
emitted,  and  new  sweets  are  extracted  from  them. 
He  who  hath  once  tasted  their  excellences,  will  de- 
sire to  taste  them  yet  again;  and  he  who  tastes 
them  oftenest  will  relish  them  best."  Into  this  ra- 
diant bower  of  revelation  have  not  the  members  of 
"the  Company  of  Jesus"  entered? 

"  Practising  falsehood  under  saintly  show, 
Deep  malice  to  conceal,  couched  with  revenge." 

Wholly  absorbed  with  one  idea,  and  intensely 
devoted  to  the  prosecution  of  a  single  object — the 
restoration  of  the  Papal  supremacy  and  the  aggran- 
dizement of  their  own  order — what  to  them  were 
all  the  beauties  and  the  glories  of  revealed  truth  ? 
Nought — nought  whatsoever.  There  they  could 
see,  "  undelighted,  all  delight."  Passing  by  the. 
ordinary  garniture  of  trees,  and  branches,  and  flow- 
ers, they  pounce  at  once  on  the  tree  of  life,  the 
leaves  of  which  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations. 
In  other  words,  they  seize  on  the  Gospel  of  grace 
and  salvation,  the  doctrines  and  the  precepts  of 


THE   JESUITS.  63 

which  are  designed  as  a  remedy  for  the  disease  of 
sin  throughout  all  the  kindreds  and  families  of  the 
earth.  But,  instead  of  drawing  therefrom  life  to 
themselves,  and  the  means  of  dispensing  it  toothers, 
they  sit  down — I  almost  shudder  when  I  think  of 
it — they  sit  down,  with  the  Gospel  in  their  hands, 
deliberately  devising  death  to  those  who  otherwise 
might  have  lived.  With  consummate  coolness  and 
self-possession,  ay,  and  with  imperturbably  calm 
and  self-satisned  peace  of  mind,  they  sit  down  ;  and 
by  their  specious  machinery  of  sophistries,  and  sub- 
tleties, and  hair-splitting  distinctions,  and  straining 
at  gnats  and  swallowing  of  camels,  they  contrive  to 
transmute  every  virtue  of  that  life-giving  plant, 
every  doctrine  and  precept  of  the  blessed  Gospel, 
which,  well  used,  had  been  the  pledge  of  immor- 
tality, into  a  deadly  poison,  not  for  the  healing,  but 
for  the  ministering  of  spiritual  and  eternal  death  to 
the  nations  !  Who,  then,  will  presume  to  reply  in 
the  negative,  when  I  ask — not  in  the  way  of  idle, 
senseless  declamation,  but  in  strictest  consistency 
with  demonstrated  truth  and  rigid,  impartial  justice 
—whether  all  this,  in  its  intention,  progress,  and 
consummation,  be  not  literally  and  truly  the  very 
master-piece  of  hell — the  very  perfection  of  devil- 
ism? 


64  THE    JESUITS. 


THE  PRACTICES  OF  THE  JESUITS. 

Haying  thus  briefly  unfolded  the  moral  principles 
of  the  Jesuits,  we  must  next,  though  with  equal  bre- 
vity, direct  attention  to  their  practices.  For  past  ex- 
perience amply  proves  that  they  could  well  practise 
what  they  so  assiduously  preached,  and  that,  when- 
ever opportunities  occurred,  they  never  scrupled  to 
put  their  doctrines  into  execution.  Now,  from  a 
fountain  so  foul  and  so  polluted,  Avhat  could  we  expect 
to  flow,  but  impure  and  muddy  streams  ?  From 
principles  so  dangerous — nay,  so  utterly  opposed  to 
the  express  commands  of  Scripture,  and  the  peace 
and  safety  of  society  at  large — what  could  we  ex- 
pect, but  deeds  of  the  darkest  shadow,  and  crimes 
of  the  blackest  dye  ?  Accordingly,  as  has  been  re- 
marked, "a  faithful  record  of  the  transactions  of 
which  our  globe  has  been  the  theatre  would,  we 
think,  bear  out  the  assertion  fully,  that  there  is  no 
chapter  in  the  world's  history  stained  with  so  foul 
a  blot,  or  filled  with  such  extensive  elements  of 
mourning,  and  lamentation,  and  wo,  as  the  chapter 
which  would  contain  a  complete  and  unvarnished 
rehearsal  of  '  The  Acts  of  the  Jesuits  /'  " 

The  subject,  however,  is  so  immense,  that  we  can 
scarcely  do  more  than  approach  its  threshold.  If 
time  permitted,  we  could  easily  show  that,  as  there 
is  not  a  command  in  the  decalogue  which  they  have 
not  taught  how  to  violate  Avith  impunity,  so  there  is 
not  a  commandment  in  the  decalogue  which  they 
have  not  actually  violated  in  their  own  practices. 
But  time  will  not  permit ;  and,  therefore,  we  must 
rest  satisfied  with  a  few  classified  generalizations, 
that  may  simply  serve  to  indicate  the  course  which 


THE  JESUITS.  65 

we  were  prepared  fully  to  traverse,  and  amply  to 
illustrate. 

And  first.  Let  us  view  the  sinister  practices  of  the 
Jesuits  in  reference  to  education  and  the  spread  of 
true  knowledge. 

If  crookedness,  perverseness,  or  hostility  be  disco- 
vered here,  then  must  the  celebrated  aphorisms  of 
our  great  English  moralist  come  into  full  play,  viz., 
"  He  that  voluntarily  continues  in  ignorance  is 
guilty  of  all  the  crimes  which  ignorance  produces  ; 
as  to  him  that  should  extinguish  the  tapers  of  a  light- 
house might  justly  be  imputed  the  calamities  of 
shipwreck." 

What,  then,  in  reference  to  this  all-important  sub- 
ject, are  the  facts  of  the  case,  as  engraven  on  the 
pages  of  authentic  history  ? 

The  mind  of  Europe,  let  it  be  remembered,  had 
been  liberated  by  the  reforming  impulse.  Freely 
and  fearlessly  did  it  then  shoot  out,  with  accelerated 
force,  in  all  directions.*  Freely  and  fearlessly  was 
every  department  of  mind  and  matter  sifted  and 
explored.  Freely  and  fearlessly  were  the  rights  of 
conscience,  the  range  and  limitations  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty,  the  relations  of  man  to  man,  and  of 
all  men  to  their  God,  investigated  and  settled.  In- 
dependence of  inquiry,  freedom  of  thought,  manli- 
ness of  sentiment,  and  energy  of  expression,  increased 
and  abounded  ;  while,  as  the  necessary  result,  know- 
ledge, true  knowledge,  in  every  domain  of  improved 
r  literature,  newly  created  science,  and  restored  theo- 
logy, increased  and  abounded  too.  What,  then, 
must  be  done  by  the  chosen  emissaries  of  Rome  ? 

*  This,  with  a  few  other  passages  in  the  Lecture,  has  been 
taken  from  an  ephemeral  address  delivered  a  few  years  ago  by 
the  author  in  the  Town  Hall  of  Calcutta.  To  prevent  any 
misconception,  the  fact  is  here  simply  stated,  without  its  being 
deemed  necessary  to  make  any  further  acknowledgment. 

6* 


66  THE  JESUITS. 

Openly  to  denounce  or  anathematize  such  know- 
ledge in  the  gross,  was  no  longer  deemed  expedient 
or  safe.  What,  then,  must  be  done  ?  What,  but 
change  entirely  the  old  course  of  tactics — relinquish 
hostilities,  proclaim  a  truce,  embrace  the  ancient  foe, 
and  so  manage  the  embrace  as  to  stifle  and  smother 
its  object  !  Behold,  then,  the  new  and  wondrous- 
career,  the  consummately  dexterous  undertaking  of 
the  "  Society  of  Jesus  !"  Keenly  alive  to  the  im- 
portance of  education,  they  go  forth,  and  so  master 
every  branch  of  learning  as  to  acquire  a  renown  that 
eclipses  every  other.  Of  that  renown  they  take 
skilful  advantage.  Those  branches  of  knowledge 
which  tended  most  to  elevate  and  strengthen  the 
mind — to  exercise  and  brace  the  reasoning  faculty — 
to  render  inquiry  free,  penetrating,  and  bold — they 
gradually  suppressed,  or  mutilated,  or  bent  to  un- 
worthy ends.  Those  branches  of  knowledge,  on  the 
other  hand,  which  tended  to  withdraw  the  mind 
from  the  all-important  themes  of  theology  and 
ethics,  civil  and  religious  liberty — which  tended 
merely  to  regale  the  senses,  to  gratify  the  taste,  to 
polish  the  manners,  to  amuse  the  fancy,  to  occupy 
the  imaginative  faculties,  and  lead  to  inventions  for 
augmenting  the  comforts  and  conveniences  of  man's 
temporal  estate — these,  these  the)'-  cultivated  to  the 
uttermost.  Around  these  they  strove  to  shed  a  halo 
of  glory  which  might  out-dazzle  all  the  rest.  On 
these  they  contrived  to  lavish  all  their  hosannas  of 
applause  ;  and  thus  laboured  to  attract  towards  them 
the  generous  aspirings  of  youth,  and  concentrate  on 
them  the  expanding  energies  of  riper  years.  This 
view  of  their  marvellous  crusade  has  been  briefly 
but  admirably  depicted  by  the  celebrated  French 
essayist  on  the  Reformation.  "  To  model  Science," 
says  he,  "  according  to  the  interests  of  the  pontifical 
power,   and  render  even  Science  ignorant  in  all 


THE  JESUITS. 


67 


things  in  which  it  was  requisite  that  she  should  be 
ignorant ;  to  produce  some  things  in  the  clearest 
light,  and  to  retain  others  in  the  thickest  darkness  ; 
to  fertilize  the  kingdoms  of  memory  and  the  imagi- 
nation, by  rendering  that  of  thought  and  reason  bar- 
ren ;  to  form  minds  submissive,  without  being  igno- 
rant of  any  thing  but  what  could  affect  their  submis- 
sion, like  those  highly  valued  slaves  of  the  great  men 
of  antiquity,  who  were  grammarians,  rhetoricians, 
poets,  fine  dancers,  and  musicians,  and  knew  every 
thing  except  to  become  free ;  to  make  reason  and 
knowledge  themselves  operate  to  the  consolidation 
of  a  system  hostile  to  reason  and  knowledge  ; — I 
cannot  fear  that  I  shall  be  contradicted  by  any  im- 
partial man,  in  stating  that  such  was  the  system  of 
instruction  adopted  by  the  Jesuits.  It  was  inge- 
nious, and  universally  adapted  to  the  end  they  had 
in  view.  It  was  calculated  to  form  illustrious  and 
elegant  authors,  learned  men,  orators,  good  Roman 
Catholics,  Jesuits,  if  you  please,  but  not  mev  in  the 
full  acceptation  of  that  term.  He  who  became  a  man 
under  their  management,  became  so  independently 
of  that  management,  and  in  spite  of  it."* 

*  All  this  perfectly  accords  with  the  observation  of  D'Alem- 
bert, quoted  by  R.obertson.  though  neitherofthese  authors  seems 
to  have  hit  on  the  true  key  of  its  solution,  viz.,  "  that  though 
the  Jesuits  made  extraordinary  progress  in  erudition  of  every 
species — though  they  could  reckon  up  many  of  their  brethren 
who  have  been  eminent  mathematicians,  antiquarians,  and 
critics — though  they  have  even  formed  some  orators  of  reputa- 
tion— yet  the  order  has  never  produced  one  man  whose  mind 
was  so  much  enlightened  by  sound  knowledge  as  to  merit  the 
name  of  a  philosopher." 

All  this  not  only  accords  with,  but  satisfactorily  accounts 
for,  the  fact,  that — while  the  Jesuits  could  produce  writers  on 
law,  and  mathematics,  and  natural  history,  physicians  and 
surgeons,  dramatists,  grammarians,  statuaries,  painters,  and 
poets — they  produced  no  works  on  the  "  every-day  literature 
of  common  life" — none  on  the  best  and  highest  interests  of 
mankind — none  fitted  to  elevate  and  improve  the  intellectual 


68  THE   JESUITS. 

When  will  Protestants  be  wise  ?  When  will 
they  waken  from  their  sleep  and  slumber,  and 
dreamy  indifference  ?  When  will  they  learn  to 
distinguish    the   mirage   of   a  spurious   liberalism 

and  moral  character  of  the  people  at  large — none  calculated  to 
make  men  wiser,  or  better,  or  happier  in  their  relations  to  God 
or  to  one  another.  To  adopt  and  extend  an  expression  of  the 
author  of  the  "Protestant:"  "The  writings  of  Milton  and 
Locke  alone,  on  the  subject  of  liberty  and  toleration,  are  of 
more  value  than  all  that  Jesuitism  has  produced  to  this  day." 

Or,  if  further  proof  be  wanted  to  illustrate  and  confirm  our 
view  of  their  inveterate  hostili-y,  in  practice,  to  the  cause  of 
true  knowledge,  we  may  turn  to  a  case  in  which  they  nrght 
have  done  every  thing  for  it,  had  they  been  so  disposed.  Hav- 
ing succeeded  in  establishing  an  independent  commonwealth 
in  Paraguay,  in  Sonth  America,  and  having  exercised  an  un- 
disturbed and  absolute  sovereignty  over  that  region  for  more 
than  a  century,  it  may  reasonably  be  asked,  if  they  were  truly 
and  honestly  such  flaming  advocates  of  a  sound  and  liberal 
education,  How  did  their  system  operate  in  regard  to  the  in- 
terests of  true  knowledge  and  the  enlightenment  of  the  people  ? 
Allowing  whatever  credit  is  due  for  teaching  the  rude  natives 
how  to  cultivate  the  soil,  build  comfortable  houses,  &c,  we 
aver,  that  for  the  diffusion  of  true  knowledge  of  any  kind  they 
did  iiothing.  They  erected  no  schools.  They  taught  no  litera- 
ture— no  science — no  Christian  theology.  They  kept  the 
people  at  large  in  a  sfate  of  perpetual  pupilage,  imbecility,  and 
mental  childhood.  To  prevent  the  intrusion  of  one  new  idea, 
they  prohibited  all  egress  from  their  own  territory  to  the  in- 
habitants, and  all  ingress  to  strangers.  And  to  render  the 
barrier  to  intercommunion  still  more  impracticable,  they 
strictly  forbade  the  acquisition  of  any  tongue  except  one  of 
the  rudest  and  most  unpolished  of  the  Indian  dialects.  The 
despotism  over  mind  and  body  was  unbroken  and  complete, 
till  the  day  of  retributive  vengeance  drove  the  despots  for  ever 
from  Paraguay. 

The  fate  of  knowledge  was  much  the  same  in  all  the  other 
Popish  States  of  South  America.  Speaking  of  one  of  these, 
so  recently  as  1824,  Mrs.  Graham  says:  "The  very  names 
of  literature  and  science  are  here  almost  unknown."  Of  an- 
other, Mr.  Lindley,  a  traveller  in  1803,  gives  a  precisely 
similar  account.  Little  more  than  twenty  years  ago  printing 
was  unknown  in  Buenos  Ayres,  and  every  possible  obstacle 
thrown  in  the  way  of  education.  Even  in  Brazil,  there  was 
no  printing  press  till  the  Court  took  up  its  residence  there  in 
1806,  and  imported  one  from  Europe.  No  Bibles  or  Testa- 
ments had  ever  been  introduced ;  and  any  works  which  had 


THE   JESUITS.  69 

from  the  living-  waters  of  a  genuine  Christian 
liberality  ?  .  When  will  they  learn  to  distrust  the 
empty  profession  of  men  who,  under  pretence  of  a 
flaming-  zeal  for  knowledge,  go  forth  only  the  more 
effectually  to  forge  those  fetters  which  shall  re- 
enchain  the  souls  of  men  in  the  bondage  of  a  gall- 
ing superstition  and  crushing  despotism?  When 
will  Protestants  learn  to  refuse,  on  principle — refuse, 
from  respect  to  the  laws  of  God,  from  love  to  the 
souls  of  their  children,  from  a  regard  to  the  best 
interests  of  society — refuse  utterly  to  aid,  or  sanc- 
tion, or  patronise,  directly  or  indirectly,  any  one 
of  the  colleges,  or  other  Jesuit  institutions  ?  Ah  ! 
if  they  do  not  learn  now,  and  learn  speedily,  so  to 
act — if  they  persist  in  setting  at  nought  every 
counsel,  and  despising  every  warning  and  reproof — 
the  retributive  sentence  may  soon  be  issued  from 
the  tribunal  of  the  Eternal :  "  Ephraim  is  given  to 
idols  ;  let  him  alone. "  And,  then,  wo,  wo  be  unto 
them  that  shall  thus  be  left  to  reap  the  fruit  of  their 
own  devices  by  a  gracious  and  long-suffering  God  ! 

Secondly,  Let  us  look  at  the  practices  of  the 
Jesuits,  in  reference  to  their  repeated  and  systematic 
violation  even  of  their  own  special  and  peculiar 
vows. 

The  real  question  is  not,  Whether  the  objects 
contemplated  by  these  vows  be  in  themselves,  ab- 
stractly considered,  right  or  wrong,  proper  or  im- 
proper, expedient  or  inexpedient  ?  Those  who 
take  the  vows  solemnly  profess,  before  God  and 
man,  to  believe  that  they  are  altogether  right, 
proper,  and   expedient ;    and  the  real  question  is, 


been  admitted  into  so  dark  a  region,  were  works  of  congenial 
darkness,  such  as  story-telling  almanacs,  and  lives  of  Popish 
saints,  and  manuals  of  ritualistic  observances.  So  much  for 
the  boasted  proceedings  of  the  friends  and  advocates  of  know- 
ledge in  the  New  World ! 


70  THE    JESUITS. 

Whether,  in  the  fulness  of  such  avowed  conscien- 
tious belief,  it  be  consistent  with  the  laws  and 
principles  of  moral  obligation,  to  take,  and  from 
time  to  time  to  reiterate  vows,  accompanied  with 
solemn  oaths,  and  then  deliberately  to  violate- such 
vows,  as  often  as  caprice,  inclination,  or  worldly- 
interests  may  suggest  or  require  ?  Or,  the  question 
may  be  put  in  a  still  simpler  form,  viz.,  Is  it  right 
to  be  guilty  of  habitual  and  systematic  perjury? 
When  stripped  of  all  plausible  pretexts  and  subter- 
fuges, and  put  in  this  naked,  undisguised  form, 
which  is  the  form  of  essential  truth  and  reality,  the 
question  must  be  met  by  an  indignant  negative,  ex- 
pressive alike  of  disgust  and  abhorrence. 

Now,  grievous  and  aggravated  though  the  charge 
be,  it  is  the  very  charge  which  facts  without  num- 
ber— facts,  too,  of  world-wide  notoriety — compel  us 
to  bring  against  the  Jesuits.  To  attempt  to  bring 
proofs  to  substantiate  the  charge  would  be  like 
attempting  to  enumerate  the  trees  of  the  forest,  or 
the  sands  on  the  sea-shore.  The  entire  history  of 
the  order,  collectively  and  individually,  is  one  con- 
tinued tissue  of  substantiating  facts. 

Does  not  every  "  professed"  member  of  the  insti- 
tute, from  the  general  downwards,  vow  to  be  always, 
and  in  all  places,  prepared  for  the  instant  execution 
of  the  Papal  mandate  ?  and  yet,  in  practice,  how 
repeatedly,  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  has  this  pe- 
culiar vow  been  trampled  under  foot!*  Yea,  in 
the  very  face  of  this  most  peculiar  and  stringent 
vow,  the  very  "  constitutions"  of  the  body  contain 
certain  adroitly  expressed  clauses,  which  virtually 
"  elevate  the  authority  of  the  general  above  that  of 


*  For  an  instructive  and  memorable  exemplification  of  this 
assertion,  the  reader  is  referred  to  an  article  on  "  The  Missions 
of  the  Jesuits,"  in  No.  III.  of  the  Calcutta  Review. 


THE    JESUITS.  71 

the  Pope,  by  providing  that  he  may  overrule,  with- 
out rebelling  against  it ;  for  they  declare  that  he 
may  order  his  subject-missionaries  to  one  district 
rather  than  another,  at  the  simple  preference  of  his 
own  will." 

Does  not  every  member  of  the  Jesuit  body,  in 
the  earlier  stages  of  his  novitiate,  take  the  vows  of 
"  chastity"  and  "  perpetual  poverty  ?"  and  are  not 
these  vows,  at  subsequent  stated  intervals,  repeatedly 
renewed  ?  and  yet,  to  those  who  are  at  all  acquainted 
with  the  history  and  proceedings  of  the  members 
of  the  body,  is  it  not  a  fact,  just  as  notorious  as  that 
the  sun  is  in  the  heavens,  that  the  former  of  these 
vows  has  been  broken  times  and  ways  without 
number ;  and  that  the  latter  has  been  not  only  re- 
peatedly, but  habitually,  and  even  systematically, 
disregarded  ?  Is  it  not  one  of  the  most  indubitable 
of  historical  facts,  that,  in  spite  of  the  vow  of  "per- 
petual poverty,"  the  Jesuits,  as  a  corporate  body, 
soon  became  by  far  the  ivealthiest  in  the  whole 
world  t*  Is  it  not  one  of  the  most  indubitable  of 
historical  facts,  that,  in  additional  contempt  of  the 
vow  of  "  monastic  obedience,"  many  individual 
members  of  the  body,  did,  separately,  and  on  their 
own  account,  amass  a  vast  deal  of  personal  pro- 


*  Here  is  a  case,  which  may  be  taken  as  a  single  specimen 
from  among  hundreds  of  a  similar  kind  : — 

In  1767,  the  Jesuits,  by  a  decree  of  his  "Most  Catholic 
Majesty,"  were,  on  account  of  their  iniquitous  practices,  igno- 
miniously  expelled  from  Spain,  and  the  whole  of  their  property, 
including  "goods,  chattels,  and  estates,"  confiscated.  On 
this  occasion,  in  the  College  of  Barcelona  alone,  were  found 
"  riches  to  the  amount  of  twelve  millions  of  crowns.  It  con- 
sisted of  several  tons  of  gold  and  silver,  a  large  quantity  of  gold 
dust,  emeralds,  and  diamonds,  crowns  of  gold  ornamented  with 
emeralds  and  rubies,  some  bales  of  cocoa,  and  some  rich  mer- 
chandise from  the  East  Indies."  So  much  for  the  vow  of 
"  perpetual  poverty  !" 


72  THE   JESUITS. 

perty  ?*  Is  it  not  one  of  the  most  indubitable  of 
historical  facts,  that,  as  if  in  open  derision  of  the 
vow  of  "  perpetual  chastity,"  members  of  the  Jesuit 
order  wrote  books,  with  the  sanction  of  their  supe- 
riors, which  Romanists  themselves  have  denounced 
as  inexpressibly  abominable  ?  and  that  what  they 
propounded  in  their  writings  they  continually  ex- 
emplified in  the  most  flagrant  practices  ?t 


*  Here  is  a  case,  taken  from  the  Annual  Register  for  the 
year  1759,  which  may  serve  as  a  specimen  : — 

"Naples,  May  29th. — Last  week  the  apartment  of  the  late 
Father  Pepe,  the  Jesuit,  for  whose  pulpit  and  confession-box 
the  people  made  great  scrambling,  from  a  notion  of  his  great 
sanctity,  was  opened,  in  the  presence  of  our  cardinal  arch- 
bishop, and  one  of  the  king's  ministers.  There  were  found 
in  it  600  ounces  of  gold  in  specie  :  bills  amounting  to  56,000 
ducats  ;  1000  pounds  of  wax  ;  10  copper  vessels  full  of  Dutch 
tobacco  ;  three  gold  repeating  watches ;  four  snuff-boxes  made  of 
rare  shells  ;  200  silk  handkerchiefs  ;  and  a  capital  of  300,000 
ducats.  Before  his  death  he  made  a  present  to  Jesus'  Church 
of  a  piece  of  velvet  hangings,  laced  with  gold,  a  large  statue 
of  the  immaculate  conception,  of  massy  silver,  and  a  fine 
pyramid,  to  be  erected  in  the  front  of  the  church."  So  much, 
again,  for  the  vow  of  "  perpetual  poverty  !" 

t  As  a  single  illustration  of  what  is  here  asserted,  we  may 
again  refer  to  the  work  put  forth  in  the  year  1663,  by  Matthew 
Moya — the  work  which  a  member  of  the  French  Parliament, 
that  publicly  pronounced  sentence  of  condemnation  on  it,  re- 
probated as  "containing  whatever  the  most  depraved  mind 
could  have  discovered  in  a  century,  and  all  which  had  before 
escaped  the  wickedness  and  debauchery  of  man."  And  yet 
this  is  a  purely  Romish  testimony  ! 

As  to  practices,  one  example  also,  as  a  specimen,  must  suffice. 
About  the  beginning  of  last  century  there  were  several  Jesuit 
missionaries  in  China.  Of  these,  some  became  notorious  for 
their  gross  immoralities.  In  1748,  the  Romish  Bishop  of 
Nankin,  in  a  letter  to  Pope  Benedict  XIV.,  refers  with  grief 
and  shame  to  the  conduct  of  these  men,  and  speaks  of  one  of. 
them  in  the  following  terms:  "  But  the  crime  committed  by 
Father  Anthony  Joseph,  the  superior  of  the  i?iissions,  is  yet 
more  scandalous.  This  man  has  remained  for  these  eight  years 
past  continually  plunged  in  the  abominable  practice  of  sinning 
with  women,  at  the  time  they  came  to  confess,  and  even  in  the 
place  where  he  confessed  them  ;  after  which  he  gave  them  ab- 
solution, and  administered  the  sacrament  to  them  !    He  told 


THE   JESUITS.  73 

Thirdly,  Let  us  look  to  the  practices  of  the 
Jesuits  in  reference  to  their  habitual  system  of 
compromise  of  principle,  concealment  of  truth,  and 
personal  disguise. 

One  of  the  grandest  and  most  distinguishing  fea- 
tures in  the  conduct  and  practices  of  the  Jesuits, 
has  ever  been  the  infinite  variety  of  disguises 
which  they  assumed — the  infinite  variety  of  fic- 
titious names  and  characters  under  which  they 
appeared — the  infinite  variety  of  modes  in  which 
they  contrived  to  cloak  and  conceal  their  real  de- 
signs— the  infinite  variety  of  compromises  of  prin- 
ciple which  they  exhibited — the  infinite  variety  of 
conformities  to  prevailing  customs  and  opinions  to 
which  they  submitted,  for  the  more  successful  ac- 
complishment of  their  sinister  ends. 

The  practical  principle  of  Jesuitism  being  that 
of  expediency,  in  its  basest,  grossest,  and  most 
licentious  form,  it  proved  everywhere  fatally  consist- 
ent with  itself.  Everywhere,  chameleon-like,  did 
it  assume  the  hue  and  colour  of  national,  local,  and 

them  that  these  actions  need  not  give  them  any  concern,  since 
all  their  fathers,  the  bishop,  and  the  Pope  himself,  observed 

the  same  practices  !     The  debaucheries  of  this  man 

And  this  was  known  to  Christians,  and  to  the  heathens.  Some 

Persons  represented  these  crimes  to  the  superiors  of  the 
esuits  ;  but  the  commissary,  whom  they  sent  for  the  purpose, 
declared  him  innocent :  I  know  not  upon  what  pretence.  For 
myself,  being  unable  to  resist  the  complaints  I  constantly  re- 
ceived. I  collected  the  necessary  proofs,  and  found  that  all  with 
which  he  was  charged  was  only  too  true.  And  while  I  was  con- 
sidering of  the  best  means  of  punishing  this  man,  the  manda- 
rins caused  him  to  be  arrested  suddenly,  together  with  two  of 
his  brethren.  What  occasioned  still  greater  scandal  was,  that 
the  mandarins  who  had  been  some  time  acquainted  with  part 
of  the  facts,  collected  correct  dejjositions  to  establish  his  crimes, 
and  announced  them  at  full  length  in  their  sentence,  which  they 
made  public.  He  was  condemned  to  death  with  the  other 
Jesuits,  on  the  22d  September,  1748,  and  they  were  both 
strangled  in  prison."  So  much  for  the  vow  of  "perpetual 
chastity  !" 

7 


74 


THE    JESUITS. 


social  peculiarities.  Everywhere  did  it  accommo- 
date itself,  with  elastic  spring,  to  established  habits, 
manners,  and  customs.  The  promotion  of  its  own 
interests  "  by  all  possible  means,  and  at  all  possible 
expenses,"  continued  ever  and  everywhere  to  be 
its  animating  and  guiding  pole-star. 

Among  the  learned,  the  Jesuits  showed  them- 
selves lovers  of  learning — among  the  illiterate,  they 
upheld  the  maxim  that  ignorance  was  the  mother 
of  devotion  ;  among  the  free,  they  were  advocates 
of  liberty — among  the  bond,  apologizers  for  slavery ; 
among  the  upright,  they  feigned  integrity — among 
the  unscrupulous,  they  encouraged  fraud ;  among 
the  noble,  they  abused  the  vulgar — among  the 
vulgar,  they  insulted  the  noble ;  among  the  ab- 
stemious, they  plead  for  temperance — among  the 
intemperate,  they  turned  abstemiousness  into  a  jest; 
among  the  pure,  they  could  eulogize  chastity  as 
one  of  the  chiefest  of  virtues — among  the  unchaste, 
they  gave  way  to  the  most  unbridled  indulgences  ; 
among  Deists,  or  Atheists,  or  Jews,  they  could  re- 
pudiate the  God  of  the  Bible  and  the  Saviour  of 
Christianity;  among  Protestants,  they  could  appear 
with  an  ultra  zeal  for  Protestantism  ;  among  Pagan 
idolaters,  they  could  sanction  the  most  degrading 
idolatry  and  superstition ;  among  contemplative 
mystics,  they  could  mimic  seraphic  raptures;  among 
self-tormenting  ascetics  they  could  submit  to  the 
most  grievous  self-inflicted  severities. 

This  is  an  interminable  theme,  and  would  require 
at  least  one  whole  lecture  to  do  it  any  thing  like  jus- 
tice. We  can  only  furnish  a  few  cursory  illustra- 
tive particulars,  by  way  of  specimens. 

In  England,  the  Jesuits,  at  an  early  period,  de- 
spairing of  being  able,  by  direct  means,  to  seduce 
the  Protestants  back  to  Popery,  their  next  grand 
expedient  was,  to  weaken  Protestantism,  by  creating 


THE    JESUITS. 


75 


divisions  and  discords,  schisms  and  heresies,  amongst 
its  adherents.  In  order  the  more  effectually  to  ac- 
complish this  end,  they  resolved  to  take  the  neces- 
sary oaths,  and  to  feign  themselves  to  be  members 
and  ministers  of  the  Church  of  England — such  hy- 
pocritical conformity  being  declared  to  be  not  a  sin, 
but  meritorious — the  parties  taking  the  oath  with 
an  intention  to  promote  or  advance  the  Romish  faith. 
Accordingly,  in  the  guise  of  Anglican  priests,  these 
Jesuits,  "instead  of  drawing  their  deluded  followers 
off'  to  Popery,  pretended  the  most  unbounded  zeal 
against  it,  inveighing  most  bitterly  against  the  Pope 
and  the  Latin  mass,  and  comparing  the  English 
Liturgy  to  it."  One  of  the  earliest  conformists  of 
this  description,  in  an  interview  with  the  Pope, 
confessed  that  he  had  reviled  his  Holiness,  and 
railed  at  the  Church  of  Rome  among  the  English 
heretics.  "  How,"  said  the  Pope,  somewhat  taken 
aback  and  surprised,  "how,  in  the  name  of  Jesus, 
Mary,  and  all  the  saints,  hast  thou  done  so  ?"  "  Sir," 
was  the  reply,  "  I  preached  against  set  forms  of 
prayer,  and  I  called  the  English  prayers  English 
mass,  and  have  persuaded  several  to  pray  spiritually 
and  extempore  ;  and  this  has  so  much  taken  with 
the  people,  that  the  Church  of  England  has  become 
as  odious  to  that  sort  of  people  whom  I  instructed 
as  mass  is  to  the  Church  of  England;  and  this  will 
be  a  stumbling-block  to  that  Church,  while  it  is  a 
Church" — on  which  the  Pope  was  not  only  satisfied, 
but  "commended  him,"  and  gave  him  a  reward  of 
two  thousand  ducats  for  his  good  service." 

In  India,  on  the  other  hand,  the  same  principle 
of  expediency  led  them  repeatedly  to  swear,  in  a 
manner  the  most  solemn,  that  they  were  genuine 
Brahmins — Brahmins  of  the  purest  and  most  uncon- 
taminated  lineage — Brahmins  who  could  trace  their 
pedigree  direct  to  the  mouth  of  the  god  Brahma. 


76  THE    JESUITS. 

There,  too,  they  retained  and  sanctioned  many 
abominable  idolatrous  practices ;  while,  to  gain  su- 
perior influence,  and  earn  to  themselves  lasting 
renown,  they  exhibited  some  of  the  most  dreadful 
austerities  of  Hindu  asceticism.* 


*  On  this  department  of  the  subject,  a  masterly  and  authori- 
tative dissertation  will  be  found  in  No.  III.  of  the  Calcutta 
Reviexo  ;  to  which  the  reader  is  earnestly  referred.  Here  we 
note  only  two  or  three  of  the  particulars. 

Mark,  first,  the  progress  of  the  zealous  but  extravagant  en- 
thusiast Xavier.  Finding  the  people  of  India  ignorant,  super- 
stitious, credulous,  does  he  intrepidly  set  about  the  benevolent 
work  of  instruction?  No;  he  introduces  a  few  moreabsurd  rites, 
and  a  few  more  spurious  objects  of  worship ;  and  forming  a 
coalition  between  heathenism  and  corrupted  Christianity,  he 
baptizes  multitudes  wholesale,  leaving  them  as  ignorant  of 
any  vital  truth  as  before.  Finding  the  people  much  given  to 
spells,  and  charms,  and  incantation,  he  strives  to  outrival  the 
wonder-workers,  and  maintain  his  influence  by  an  ever-ready 
appeal  to  numberless  pretended  miracles.  On  account  of  all 
these  services  in  the  cause  of  truth,  knowledge,  and  benevo- 
lence, the  Papists  have  now  a  Novena,  or  nine  days'  devotion 
annually,  in  honour  of  him  who  rendered  them  !  and  on  that 
occasion  they  heap  upon  him  a  profusion  of  epithets  not  less 
extravagant  than  they  are  blasphemous  and  profane.  Look, 
again,  at  his  relation,  Geronimo  Xavier,  who  was  sent  on  a 
special  errand  to  the  Mogul  Court,  at  a  time  when  the  Empe- 
ror Akbar  aimed  at  the  formation  of  a  new  religion,  or  scheme 
of  eclecticism  that  might  unite  Hindus,  Mohammedans,  P  arsis, 
and  even  Jews  and  Christians,  in  one  body.  What  an  oppor- 
tunity for  expounding  the  pure,  unadulterated  truth  of  God  ! 
Was  the  opportunity  improved  ?  On  the  contrary,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  crooked  policy  of  his  order,  he  presented  the 
emperor  with  a  translation  of  the  Gospels  into  Persian,  which 
he  took  care  to  intermingle  with  many  of  the  popular  Persian 
legends,  in  the  fond  hope  that  they  might  thus  be  rendered 
more  palatable  to  the  imperial  taste.  The  wily  Jesuit  had  out- 
witted himself,  as  he  deserved.  The  impious  artifice,  we  are 
informed,  had  "an  effect  directly  contrary  to  that  which  was 
designed.  Akbar  was  disgusted  with  meeting  with  legends 
of  whose  falsehood  he  had  been  previously  convinced,  and 
thenceforth  regarded  Christianity  with  suspicion."  Alas! 
alas  !  that  an  occasion  so  seasonable  should  be  irredeemably 
lost,  and  the  gospel  of  salvation  itself  brought  into  discredit 
and  contempt,  through  the  chicanery  of  its  professed  friends. 
Once  more,  consider  the  career  of  Robertus  de  Nobilibus,  the 


THE   JESUITS.  77 

Proceeding  still  eastward,  we  find  in  China  and 
Japan,  the  most  fearful  identity  in  the  proceedings 
of  the  Jesuits.  From  the  latter  country  their  vil- 
lanies  eventually  procured  their  utter  extermination. 
In  the  former,  they  long  indulged  in  their  ingenious 


celebrated  founder  of  the  Madura  mission.  He  studied  not 
only  the  vernacular,  but  the  Sanskrit,  or  sacred  language  of 
India.  Was  it  in  order  truly  to  enlighten  the  people  ?  No  ; 
but  in  order  the  more  effectually  to  impose  on  them  his  own 
system  of  error.  For  this  end,  he  fabricated  or  forged  various 
books  in  the  style  and  peculiar  stanza  of  the  Vedas— ^the  oldest 
and  most  venerated  of  the  Hindu  Shastras.  These  literary 
forgeries,  or  religious  impositions,  he  endeavoured  to  palm 
upon  the  ignorant,  under  the  distinguishing  names  of  the  dif- 
ferent Vedas — as  if  they  were  the  real  Vedas  of  India.  Nor 
was  this  all.  Having  discovered  that  the  natives  had  a  preju- 
dice or  aversion  towards  Europeans,  he  boldly  denied  hi3 
being  a  European — giving  out  that  he  had  come  from  a  region 
in  the  north  of  India,  called  Rome.  Having  also  found  that 
the  Brahmins  were  held  in  the  highest  veneration,  and  exer- 
cised an  unlimited  authority  over  the  people,  he  next  assumed 
the  appearance  and  title  of  a  Brahmin — besmearing  his  coun- 
tenance, and  otherwise  imitating  their  manners  and  their  dress. 
Finding,  further,  that  of  all  Brahmins,  the  Sanyasis,  or  real 
ascetics,  were  the  most  highly  esteemed,  being  treated  with 
something  like  divine  honour,  he  professed  himself  to  be  a 
Sanyasi,  and  outioardhj  appeared  to  subject  himself  to  the  most 
terrible  austerities  ;  though  privately  he  was  understood  freely 
to  indulge  in  most  of  the  delicacies  and  luxuries  which  Europe 
or  Asia  could  supply.  But  he  did  not  stop  even  here.  When 
doubts  began  to  be  raised  about  the  reality  of  his  Brahminhood, 
he  produced  an  old,  dirty,  and  smoky  parchment,  in  which  he 
had  forged,  in  the  ancient  Indian  characters,  a  deed,  setting 
forth  "  that  the  Brahmins  of  Rome,  in  Northern  India,  were 
of  much  older  date  than  those  of  Southern  India;  and  that 
the  Jesuits  of  Rome  descended  in  a  direct  line  from  the  god 
Brahma  !"  And  when  the  validity  of  his  claims  of  genealo- 
gical descent  from  Brahma,  and  the  genuineness  of  the  forged 
document  brought  to  prove  it,  were  called  in  question  by  the 
scepticism  even  of  credulous  Indians,  he  convened  a  public 
assembly  of  Brahmins,  and  in  their  presence  banished  all 
further  scepticism,  by  declaring  upon  oath  "that  he  derived 
really  and  truly  his  origin  from  the  god  Brahma!"  How 
could  the  interests  of  true  religion  and  morality  be  promoted 
by  such  pious  frauds — such  lying  ingenuity — such  detestable 
perjuries  ? 

7* 


78  THE   JESUITS. 

devices — their  impious  and  fantastic  tricks.  With 
their  wonted  art,  they  studied  the  temper  and  cha- 
racter, the  taste  and  inclination  of  the  inhabitants ; 
and  having  discovered  no  small  degree  of  inquisitive 
curiosity,  associated  with  a  singular  devotedness  to 
their  own  hereditary  philosophy  and  arts,  they  re- 
solved to  gain  influence  by  outstripping  the  native 
philosophers  and  artists  in  their  own  peculiar  walk. 
In  this  they  succeeded — adding  somewhat  of  their 
own,  such  as  the  dialectics  of  the  schools,  and  the 
art  of  casting  cannon  !  But  no  branch  of  knowledge 
of  a  noble  or  generous  character  did  they  cultivate. 
On  the  contrary,  in  furtherance  of  their  own  sinister 
designs,  they  were  wont  to  deny  the  truth,  and 
fabricate  untruth.  To  humour  the  Chinese  taste  for 
antiquity,  they  declared  "  that  Jesus  Christ  had 
been  known  and  worshipped  in  their  nation  many 
ages  ago."  To  gratify  the  Chinese  predilection  for 
Confucius,  they  endeavoured  to  persuade  the  Chi- 
nese emperor  and  nobility  "  that  the  primitive  the- 
ology of  their  nation,  and  the  doctrine  of  their  great 
instructor  and  philosopher,  Confucius,  differed  almost 
in  nothing  from  the  doctrine  of  the  gospel."  To 
swell  the  number  of  their  proselytes,  instead  of  in- 
structing them  in  the  genuine  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity, they  taught  them  "a  corrupt  system  of 
religion  and  morality,  that  sat  easy  upon  their  con- 
sciences, and  was  reconcilable  with  the  indulgence 
of  their  appetites  and  passions."  They  not  only 
tolerated,  but  even  countenanced,  the  retention  of 
many  profane  opinions,  and  superstitious  rites,  and 
idolatrous  customs.  Yea,  to  such  a  pitch  of  daring 
did  they  proceed,  that,  having  found  the  people 
scandalized  by  the  doctrine  of  a  crucified  Redeemer 
— a  doctrine  which  has  ever  been  "  to  the  Jews  a 
stumbling-block  and  to  the  Greeks  foolishness" — 
they  actually  denied  the  fact  that  Christ  was  ever 


THE   JESUITS.  79 

crucified  !  Nay,  more,  they  denounced  the  fact  as 
a  base  calumny,  that  must  have  been  invented  by 
the  blaspheming  Jews,  to  throw  contempt  on  the 
gospel  of  Christ !  Ah  !  what  impious  concealment 
of  principle  have  we  here !  After  this,  can  any 
baseness  be  imputed  to  them  that  is  antecedently 
incredible  ? 

Passing  from  the  Old  World  to  the  New,  we.find 
still  the  same  sort  of  system,  and  the  same  sort  of 
men  to  promote  it.  Neither  the  waters  of  the  Pa- 
cific nor  of  the  Atlantic  can  wipe  away  the  leprous 
taint  of  Jesuitism.  In  the  New  World  they  come  in 
contact  with  the  untutored  minds  of  simple  Indians — 
very  different  from  the  pre-occupied  minds  of  Chi- 
uese  and  Hindus.  But  the  willow-like  pliancy  of 
their  system  does  not  forsake  them.  Having  disco- 
vered the  natural  inclinations  and  propensities  of 
any  people,  they  studiously  comply  with  these,  and 
as  studiously  avoid  any  thing  calculated  to  give  of- 
fence. Having  noticed  the  easy,  good-natured  indo- 
lence of  one  tribe,  such  as  the  Iraquois,  they  frame 
a  catechism  of  religious  and  useful  knowledge  to 
suit  their  taste.  Of  this  catechism,  a  copy,  with  a 
translation  annexed,  fell  into  the  hands  of  Dr.  Ma- 
ther. It  consists  chiefly  of  questions  like  these : — 
"  How  is  the  soil  made  in  heaven  ? — It  is  a  very  pure 
soil ;  they  want  neither  for  meat  nor  clothes ;  we 
have  only  to  wish,  and  we  have  them.  Are  they 
employed  in  heaven? — No;  they  do  nothing — the 
fields  yield  corn,  beans,  pumpkins,  and  the  like, 
without  tillage.  What  sort  of  trees  are  there  1 — 
Always  green,  full  and  flourishing.  But  how  are 
their  fruits  ? — In  this  respect  they  excel  ours,  that 
they  are  never  wasted  ;  you  have  no  sooner  plucked 
one  than  you  see  another  hanging  in  its  room," 
&c,  &c.  Having  met  with  another  tribe  so  fero- 
cious that  it  could  listen  to  nothing  with  patience, 


80  THE   JESUITS. 

save  accounts  of  the  execution  of  scalping-knives 
and  tomahawks,  they,  with  unheard-of  audacity,  ac- 
tually declared  that  the  meek  and  lowly  Jesus  was 
a  mighty  chieftain  and  successful  warrior,  who,  in 
three  years,  had  scalped  innumerable  men,  women, 
and  children  ! !  Can  the  force  of  sinful,  blasphem- 
ing compromise  proceed  further  than  this  ? 

On  the  subject  of  personal  disguise  it  were  end- 
less to  dilate.  To  this  dishonest  and  disreputable 
practice  they  were  wont,  at  all  times,  in  all  places, 
and  under  all  circumstances,  unscrupulously  and 
unblushingly  to  resort.*      This  notorious  and  ha- 

*  A  few  specimens,  by  way  of  illustration,  may  here  be  sup- 
plied : — 

The  Jesuit  Sammier,  when  traversing  Europe,  to  excite  the 
Popish  sovereigns  against  his  own  king,  (that  of  France,)  was 
proved  to  have  assumed  all  manner  of  forms  ; — now,  that  of 
a  common  soldier — then,  that  of  a  peasant — and  anon,  that  of 
a  priest — with  many  more. 

The  Polish  Jesuit  De  l'Aigle,  as  the  Romish  abbe,  De  la 
Roche  Arnauld,  informs  us,  when  the  French  army  was  pene- 
trating into  Russia,  pretended  to  be  a  Frenchman,  in  order  to 
deceive  the  French.  "He  followed,"  says  the  abbe,  "our 
troops  for  a  long  time  in  the  uniform  of  a  French  soldier;  and 
it  is  said  that  he  acted  thus  according  to  orders  transmitted 
from  the  court  of  Russia.  Be  that  as  it  may,  he  contributed 
largely  to  the  overthrow  of  a  French  battalion,  by  information 
which  he  conveyed  to  a  general  of  the  Russian  armies :  and 
if  we  may  believe  the  Jesuits  themselves,  he  did  more  injury 
to  Napoleon  than  the  whole  military  force  of  the  Czar." 

Bishop  Carleton,  in  1627,  says:  "When  Parsons  and 
Camp:on  came  secretly  into  England,  they  changed  their 
exterior  habit  and  apparel,  that  they  might  the  better  pass  un- 
known. Someiimes  they  went  like  ruffians — sometimes  like 
ministers — sometimes  like  noblemen — sometimes  like  soldiers 
— sometimes  like  apparitors  ;  they  walked  secretly  from  re- 
cusants' houses  to  recusants'  houses  :  and  when  Ballard  came 
to  effect  the  deliverance  of  the  Queen  of  the  Scots,  he  came 
in  a  soldier's  habit,  under  the  feigned  name  of  Captain 
Foscue." 

In  a  series  of  letters  discovering  the  scheme  projected  by 
France  in  1759,  it  is  said  :  "  Sometimes  they  (i.  e.  the  Jesuits) 
pass  for  merchants,  tradesmen,  stewards,  publicans,  farmers, 
and  of  every  kind  of  trade.     They  affect  ignorance  to  mask 


THE    JESUITS.  81 

bitual  practice  of  the  Jesuit  fraternity  has  often  been 
exposed  and  reprobated,  even  by  respectable  Ro- 
manists themselves. 

As  early  as  155S,  we  find  this  memorable  judg- 
ment left  on  record :  "  There  is  a  fraternity,  which 
has  lately  arisen,  called  the  Jesuits,  who  will  seduce 
many ;  who,  acting  for  the  most  part  like  the  Scribes 
and  Pharisees,  will  strive  to  overturn  the  truth. 
They  will  go  near  to  accomplish  their  object ;  for 
they  transform  themselves  into  various  shapes. 
Among  Pagans,  they  will  be  Pagans  ;  among  Athe- 
ists, Atheists  ;  Jews,  among  Jews;  and  Reformers, 
among  Reformers  ;  for  the  sole  purpose  of  discover- 
ing your  intentions,  your  hearts,  and  your  desires. 
These  persons  are  spread  over  the  whole  earth. 
They  will  be  admitted  into  the  councils  of  princes; 
which  will,  however,  be  no  wiser  for  their  introduc- 
tion. They  will  infatuate  them  so  far  as  to  induce 
them  to  reveal  the  greatest  secrets  of  their  hearts ; 
they  will  be  in  no  way  aware  of  them.  This  will  be 
the  consequence  of  their  advisers  neglecting  to  observe 
the  laws  of  God  and  of  his  gospel,  and  conniving 
at  the  sins  of  princes."  Who  supplies  this  partly 
historic  and  partly  prophetic  sketch  ? — an  ill-natured 
Protestant  ?  No ;  but  George  Bronswell,  the  Ro- 
mish archbishop  of  Dublin. 

We  cannot,  however,  pursue  this  branch  of  the 
subject  any  further  at  present.  These  brief  notices 
on  the  subject  of  concealment,  compromise,  and  dis- 
guise, in  the  practices  of  the  Jesuits,  must  serve  at 
once  to  illustrate  and  establish  the  charge  of  system- 
atic duplicity  which  we  have  brought  against  them. 


their  designs.  Sometimes  Dumont  brought  a  female  with  him 
into  company,  whom  he  (a  Jesuit)  made  to  pass  for  his  wife. 
Many  of  the  Jesuits  did  the  same  ;  they  made  a  convenience 
of  them,  to  disguise  their  affairs,  and  to  prevent  their  place  of 
meeting  from  being  suspected." 


82  THE   JESUITS. 

And  having  thus  illustrated  and  established  the 
charge,  we  may  now  let  loose  upon  them  the 
pointed  and  indignant  comments  of  a  recent  Eng- 
lish author.  With  him,  we  ask,  Why  all  this  se- 
crecy— all  this  concealment — all  this  disguise  ?  "  If 
their  principles  were  good,  they  could  surely  bear 
the  face  of  day.  If  their  deeds  were  good,  why  be 
so  secret — why  hold  their  candle  under  a  bushel  in 
this  way  ?  The  reason  is  plain  enough  for  the  sim- 
plest child  to  discern.  They  loved  darkness  rather  ' 
than  light,  because  their  deeds  were  evil.  Like 
bats  and  owl,  and  creeping,  crawling,  slimy  things, 
night  suits  them  better  than  the  day.  Unlike  the 
soaring  eagle,  which  bathes  its  splendid  plumage  in 
the  light  of  heaven,  the  vulture  brood  cower  on 
folded  wing  in  the  dark  caverns  of  the  earth.  Un- 
like the  honest-hearted  Christian,  who  soars  upwards 
on  the  wings  of  faith  and  love,  and  bathes  his  spirit 
in  the  beams  of  the  divine  radiance,  drinking  in 
the  glorious  light  which  emanates  from  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness,  courting,  too,  the  scrutiny  of  the 
world,  and  letting  his  light  shine  before  men,  to  the 
glory  of  his  Father  and  his  God,  the  Jesuits  gro- 
velled low  in  earthly  pursuits,  shunned  the  light  of 
day,  courted  disguise  and  obscurity,  or  revelled  in  the 
murky  glare  of  false  opinions  and  a  vicious  philoso- 
phy, and  hid  their  principles  and  their  objects  from 
the  gaze  of  mortal  man  in  fear  and  trepidation. 
There  is  something  repugnant  to  manly  feeling  in 
all  this — there  is  something  diametrically  opposed 
to  the  spirit  of  the  gospel  in  this — there  is  some- 
thing pre-eminently  unchristian  and  dishonest  in 
this.  We  like  to  see  a  man  not  ashamed  of  his 
right  name,  not  ashamed  of  his  right  trade,  not 
ashamed  of  the  party  to  which  he  belongs — above 
board,  open,  honest,  with  a  clear  brow  and  erect 
head.     But  the  Jesuit,  who  conceals  his  right  name, 


THE    JESUITS.  83 

hides  his  real  object,  contracts  his  brow,  and  disowns 
his  parly,  is  as  contemptible  as  he  is  dangerous,  and 
to  be  scorned  as  much  as  he  is  to  be  feared.  Give 
me,  any  day,  the  open  enemy  rather  than  the  secret 
foe.  Rather  let  me  meet  any  man,  than  the  dis- 
guised assassin,  the  soft-treading,  oily-tongued, 
smooth-skinned  hypocrite,  who  will  plant  a  Judas- 
kiss  on  your  brow,  and  a  dagger  in  your  heart's 
core.  The  unblushing  Infidel,  the  bold  and  reck- 
less Atheist,  can  be  better  met,  and  is  a  far  less 
dangerous  foe  to  Christianity,  than  the  slippery, 
turning,  vanishing,  masking,  equivocating  Jesuit. 

Fourthly,  Let  us  look  to  the  practices  of  the 
Jesuits,  in  reference  to  their  public  crimes,  or  crimes 
against  the  State  and  society  at  large. 

Truly  has  it  been  said  that,  wherever  they  gained 
a  footing,  "  their  evil  principles  brought  forth  evil 
practices.  They  were  troublesome  and  turbulent, 
living  in  political  agitation,  fermenting  the  public 
mind,  fomenting  it  into  endless  quarrels,  marshalling 
party  against  party,  prejudicing  subjects  against 
their  sovereigns,  and  poisoning  the  minds  of  sove- 
reigns against  their  subjects.  They  annoyed 
kings,  they  clogged  the  wheels  of  government,  and 
inoculated  the  people  with  seditious  and  turbulent 
disaffection.  They  thus  contrived  to  make  them- 
selves everywhere  detested.  Even  Romish  States 
grew  sick,  wearied  out  and  disgusted,  with  their 
endless  conspiracies,  plots,  quarrelling,  intrigues, 
and  revolutions." 

Passing  by  all  actions  of  a  more  private  and  de- 
batable character,  let  us  glance  at  a  few  of  a  more 
public  nature,  that  have  earned  for  them  a  "bad 
eminence"  of  fame  in  the  pages  of  authentic  history. 

Look  to  Holland.  Who,  in  1584,  trained  and 
encouraged  the  murderer  of  the  Prince  of  Orange, 


84  THE   JESUITS. 

and  even  consecrated  him  for  the  bloody  deed  ? — 
History  proves  that  it  was  the  Jesuits. 

Look  to  Portugal.  Who,  for  nearly  two  hundred 
years,  filled  that  country  with  revolts  and  massacres, 
usurpations  and  conspiracies — fortifying  the  leading 
agents  in  every  tragedy  by  their  counsels,  and  pro- 
viding them  with  absolutions  ? — History  proves  that 
it  was  the  Jesuits. 

Look  to  Poland.  Who  produced  the  series  of 
miseries  and  crimes  from  which  that  unhappy  king- 
dom— "declining  gradually,  until  it  fell  into  that 
state  of  torpor  which  rendered  it  an  easy  prey  to 
its  ambitious  neighbours — never  recovered  ?" — The 
celebrated  Polish  historian  of  the  Reformation  de- 
clares, that  he  "has  no  hesitation  in  answering 
emphatically  that  it  was  the  Jesuits." 

Look  to  France.  Who  instigated,  planned,  and 
directed  the  wholesale  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's 
Day,  in  which  a  hundred  thousand  innocent  Pro- 
testants cruelly  and  treacherously  fell,  their  mangled 
bodies  lying  in  heaps  and  their  blood  staining  the 
rivers  with  a  purple  dye,  thus  adding  another  fear- 
fully scarlet  stain  to  the  Mother  of  Harlots  ? — His- 
tory has  proved  that  it  was  the  Jesuits.  Who 
fomented  the  rebellion,  and  consolidated  the  un- 
natural league  in  France  against  Henry  III.,  which 
terminated  with  his  assassination  ? — History  proves 
that  it  was  the  Jesuits.  Who,  by  their  sermons, 
and  writings,  and  counsel,  and  secret  cabals,  pro- 
moted the  numerous  intrigues  against  Henry  IV., 
and  were  responsible  for  all  the  excesses  of  the  long 
civil  war  that  desolated  the  kingdom  during  his 
reign  ?  Who  nourished  the  assassins  of  that  amiable 
monarch,  sanctifying  the  horrid  deed  before  its  com- 
mission by  the  celebration  of  the  most  sacred  so- 
lemnities ? — History  proves  that  it  was  the  Jesuits. 

Look  to  England.     Who,  during  the  thirty  years 


THE   JESUITS.  85 

of  Elizabeth's  reign,  excited  civil  wars,  plots,  and 
seditions,  without  intermission  there  ?  Who  secured 
from  the  See  of  Rome  "a  pardon  to  be  granted  to 
any  one  that  would  assault  the  queen ;  or  to  any 
cook,  brewer,  baker,  vintner,  physician,  grocer,  sur- 
geon, or  of  any  calling  whatsoever,  that  would  make 
away  with  her ;  and  an  absolute  remission  of  sins 
to  the  heir  of  that  party's  family,  and  a  perpetual 
amnesty  to  them  for  ever?" — History  proves  that  it 
was  the  Jesuits.  Who  employed  Parry  to  assassi- 
nate the  queen  ? — He  himself  confessed  on  the 
scaffold  that  it  was  the  Jesuits.  They  "had  con- 
fessed him,  absolved  him  from  the  intended  crime, 
consecrated  him,  and  administered  the  sacrament  to 
him,  to  comfort  him  in  the  commission  of  her  mur- 
der !"  Who,  at  the  same  time,  brought  it  to  pass, 
that  "excommunication  and  a  perpetual  curse 
should  light  on  the  families  and  posterity  of  all 
those  of  the  mother  Church  that  would  not  promote 
or  assist,  by  means  of  money  or  otherwise,  Mary 
Queen  of  Scotland's  pretence  to  the  crown  of  Eng- 
land?"— History  proves  that  it  was  the  Jesuits. 
By  whom  was  the  projected  invasion  of  England, 
by  the  invincible  armada,  chiefly  planned  ? — By  the 
Jesuits.  Who  attempted,  by  bribery,  to  seduce  a 
Scottish  gentleman  to  murder  James  VI.  ? — It  was 
Creighton,  a  Jesuit.  Who  was  mainly  instrumental 
in  contriving,  with  such  Satanic  ingenuity,  the  Gun- 
powder Plot,  which  was  to  involve  in  one  grand 
catastrophe  the  king,  and  royal  family,  and  all  the 
leading  Protestant  peers  of  the  realm  ? — It  was 
Garnet  the  Jesuit,  who,  on  the  scaffold,  confessed 
and  gloried  in  his  guilt,  and  who  has  ever  since 
been  honoured  by  the  Jesuits  as  a  martyr,  and  in- 
cluded in  their  litany  to  the  saints  ! 

If  time  permitted,  we  might  glance,  in  lil»e  man- 
ner, at  other  European  States  ;  and  from  these  pass 
8 


86  THE   JESUITS. 

over  to  Africa,  Asia,  and  America  ;  and  everywhere 
would  we  find  the  Jesuits  creating  disturbances, 
exciting  tumults,  fomenting  quarrels,  conspiracies 
and  treasons,  and  perpetrating  the  most  abominable 
crimes.* 

*  The  case  of  Abyssinia  or  ancient  Ethiopia  in  Africa,  may 
furnish  an  example,  by  way  of  specimen. 

There,  at  first,  the  Jesuits  fawned,  flattered,  and  caressed. 
Having  at  length  gained  the  ear  of  the  emperor,  and,  through 
that,  dominion  over  his  heart,  they  dropped  the  methods  of 
argument  and  persuasion,  and  resorted  to  the  more  summary 
ones  of  fire  and  sword.  Instead  of  communicating  knowledge 
of  any  hind,  a  terrible  persecution  was  raised.  Thousands 
were  hanged,  and  burnt,  or  driven  to  the  dens  and  caves  of 
the  earth.  Viewing  a  field  strewed  with  the  carcasses  of  eight 
thousand  unoffending  peasants,  who,  for  conscience'  sake,  laid 
down  their  lives,  the  grandees  ventured  to  address  the  emperor 
with  tears  in  their  eyes,  saying:  "  Sire,  how  many  dead  bodies 
lie  here !  These  are  not  the  bodies  of  Mohammedans  or 
heathens,  but  of  Christians,  your  highness'  natural-born  sub- 
jects— our  blood  and  kindred.  Though  you  conquer,  you 
thrust  a  sword  into  your  own  bowels.  How  many  thousands 
have  been  massacred  ! — how  many  thousands  must  be,  before 
Popery  can  be  established  in  Ethiopia !  For  God's  sake  let 
the  people  alone  with  the  religion  of  their  forefathers  ;  which 
you  must  either  do,  or  ruin  the  empire  with  your  own  hands." 
Soon  afterwards,  the  emperor,  having  detected  the  cruel  ad- 
visers of  these  massacres  plotting  against  his  own  life  and 
throne,  resolved  to  get  rid  of  such  dangerous  allies.  They 
were  ignominiously  expelled  the  kingdom  ;  and  prohibited, 
under  pain  of  death,  from  ever  more  revisiting  it. 

But  the  genuine  spirit  of  their  proceedings  may,  perhaps, 
be  best  illustrated  by  specially  fastening  our  attention  on  the 
fact,  that  the  awful  process  of  consecraiing  the  intended  assas- 
sins for  their  bloody  deeds  became  with  them  an  habitual  pro- 
cess. The  design  of  such  horrible  consecration  was  "  to  nerve 
their  hands  and  harden  their  hearts  against  any  rising  com- 
punctions of  conscience,  by  inducing  them  to  suppose  that 
they  were  solemnly  consecrated  by  God  to  the  special  work  of 
killing  the  obnoxious  person,  as  a  highly  meritorious  and  praise- 
worthy act." 

Of  the  form  of  consecration  in  such  cases,  Stephen,  in  his 
"  Spirit  of  the  Church  ot  Rome,"  gives  the  following  account : 
"  The  person,"  says  he,  "  persuaded  by  the  Jesuits  to  assassi- 
nate a  king  or  prince,  is  taken  to  a  secret  chapel,  where  they 
have  prepared  upon  an  altar  a  great  dagger,  wrapped  up  in 


THE   JESUITS.  87 

As  we  have  already  summoned  a  jury,  not  of 
Protestants,  but  of  Papists,  to  decide  on  the  morality 
of  the  Jesuits,  so  now  might  we  summon  a  jury  of 
Romanists,  to  save  us  the  trouble  of  returning  a 

linen  cloth,  together  with  an  Agnus  Dei.  Drawing  it  out  of 
the  sheath,  they  sprinkle  it  with  holy  water,  and  fasten  to  the 
hilt  several  consecrated  coral  beads,  pronouncing  this  indul- 
gence, that  as  many  blows  as  the  regicide  shall  give  the  prince, 
he  shall  deliver  so  many  souls  from  purgatory.  Afver  this 
ceremony,  they  place  the  dagger  in  the  regicide's  hand,  with 
this  recommendation  :  '  Thou  chosen  son  of  God,  take  the 
sword  of  Jephthah,  the  sword  of  Samson,  the  sword  of  David, 
wherewith  he  cut  off  the  head  of  Goliath  ;  the  sword  of  Gideon, 
the  sword  of  Judith,  the  sword  of  the  Maccabees,  the  sword 
of  Pope  Julius  II.,  wherewith  he  cut  off  the  lives  of  several 
princes,  his  enemies,  filling  whole  cities  with  slaughter  and 
blood.  Go,  and  let  prudence  go  along  with  thy  courage.  Let 
God  give  new  strength  unto  thine  arm  !'  After  which  they 
fall  down  on  their  knees,  and  the  superior  of  the  Jesuits  pro- 
nounces the  following :  '  Come,  ye  cherubim,  ye  seraphim — 
thrones  and  powers!  Come,  ye  holy  angels,  and  fill  up  the 
blessed  vessel  with  an  immortal  glory  !  Do  ye  present  him 
every  day  with  the  crown  of  the  blessed  Virgin  Mary,  of  the 
holy  patriarchs  and  martyrs.  We  do  not  look  upon  him  now 
as  one  of  ours,  but  as  one  belonging  to  you.  And  thou,  O 
God  !  who  art  terrible  and  invincible,  and  hast  inspired  him 
in  prayer  and  meditation  to  kill  the  tyrant  and  heretic  for  to 
give  his  (or  her)  crown  to  a  Catholic  king,  comfort,  we  be- 
seech thee,  the  heart  of  him  we  have  consecrated  to  this  office. 
Strengthen  his  arms,  that  he  may  execute  his  enterprise. 
Clothe  him  with  the  armour  of  divine  power,  that,  having 
performed  his  design,  he  may  escape  the  hands  of  those  who 
shall  go  in  pursuit  of  him.  Give  him  wings,  that  his  holy 
members  may  fly  away  from  the  power  of  impious  heretics. 
Replenish  his  soul  with  joy,  comfort,  and  light,  by  which  his 
body,  having  banished  all  fear,  may  be  upheld  and  animated 
in  the  midst  of  dangers  and  torments  !'  This  being  ended, 
they  conduct  the  regicide  to  another  altar,  where  hangs  an 
image  of  James  Clement,  a  Dominican  friar,  who  with  a 
poisoned  knife  killed  Henry  III.  of  France.  His  image  is 
surrounded  with  angels,  who  protect  and  carry  him  to  heaven. 
The  Jesuits  show  it  to  him,  and  place  a  crown  upon  his  head, 
saying,  '  Lord,  regard  here  the  arm  and  the  executor  of  thy 
justice  ;  let  all  the  saints  arise,  bow,  and  yield  to  him  the  most 
honourable  place  amongst  them  !'  Afterwards,  he  is  not  per- 
mitted to  speak  to  any  one,  but  to  four  Jesuits  deputed  to  keep 
him  company." 


88  THE   JESUITS. 

verdict  on  their  practices.  For  this  purpose  the 
materials  are  quite  redundant.  But  we  must  hasten 
on  to  a  close.* 

From  the  rapid  review  now  given  of  the  rise  and 

*  It  may  be  well,  however,  to  furnish  a  few  specimen*  of 
the  decisive  nature  ol  the  evidence  here  referred  to ;  since 
particulars  must  ever  leave  a  more  distinct  impression  on  the 
mind  of  the  reader  than  any  merely  abstract  or  generalized 
statements. 

"  Ever  since  the  town  of  Poictiers  had  been  obliged  to  allow 
the  establishment  of  the  Jesuits,"  says  Sully  in  his  memoirs, 
"  I  received  nothing  but  complaints,  by  word  or  by  letter, 
against  those  fathers  from  the  bishop,  the  lieutenant-general, 
and  the  principal  inhabitants,  either  separately  or  collectively. 
These  complaints  came  not  only  from  the  Protestants,  but 
from  the  Catholics  themselves." 

In  a  comparatively  recent  work  by  the  French  abbe,  Mar- 
tial  Marcet  de  la  Roche  Arnauld,  himself  once  an  enthusi- 
astic admirer  of  the  Jesuits,  and  still  a  devoted  adherent  of  the 
Romish  See,  there  are  very  remarkable  disclosures  and  de- 
nunciations. Both  have  been  extorted  by  the  force  of  truth 
and  the  promptings  of  a  troubled  conscience.  A  few  extracts 
from  the  introduction  of  the  work  will  suffice. 

"I  will  not  shrink,"  says  he,  "  from  avowing,  that  the  de- 
sire of  becoming  acquainted  with  a  company  (the  Jesuits) 
which  was  making  so  much  noise  in  Europe,  emboldened  me 
to  enter  it,  (the  college,)  without  any  previous  knowledge  of 
its  sentiments  or  intentions.  I  was  received  with  those  marks 
of  esteem  and  respect  which  are  rarely  shown,  except  to  men 
of  extraordinary  merit,  or  of  tried  character.  Though  young, 
(for  I  was  then  only  sixteen,)  I  may  venture  to  say,  that  I  had 
acquired  a  kind  of  celebrity,  and  my  name  was  known,  not 
only  to  the  principal  Jesuits  of  France  and  of  Rome,  but  even 
to  some  noble  Congregationists  whom  I  shall  mention  in  the 
course  of  this  work. 

"  What  strange  disclosures  might  I  not  have  published  !  I 
have  summoned  to  the  bar  of  public  opinion  only  a  small  num- 
ber of  Jesuits  ;  there  still  remain  three  hundred  formidable 
members  whom  I  have  not  unveiled,  but  whom  1  shall  unveil 
at  a  future  time.  I  have  seen  their  manoeuvres,  and  I  am  con>- 
strained  to  expose  to  the  public  only  some  facts — which  are 
mere  trifles  compared  with  those  which  1  for  the  present  sup- 
press. Suffice  it  to  say,  that  during  the  time  I  was  among 
them,  I  incurred  the  danger  of  losing  my  liberty  and  life  for 
having  been  the  most  candid  and  liberal  of  men.  The  regard, 
the  indulgence,  the  caresses,  the  menaces,  the  persecutions, 
the  outrages  of  that  Society — all  failed  to  make  me  view  with 


THE   JESUITS.  89 

progress,  the  objects  and  designs,  the  principles  and 
the  practices  of  Jesuitism,  brief  and  imperfect  as  it 
confessedly  is,  what  a  fearful  chapter  is  opened  up 
in  the  history  of  human  obb'quity  !     But,  revolting 


indifference  and  apathy  the  secret  wiles  and  culpable  practices 
which  they  employ.  At  the  horrible  aspect  of  those  pertina- 
cious and  daring  men  (the  recollection  still  makes  me  shudder) 
I  averted  my  eyes  through  terror ;  and,  on  seeing  the  sanctuary 
of  peace  sullied  with  all  the  horrors  of  crime  and  imposture,  I 
trembled  at  the  thought  of  being  within  its  walls.  I  resolved 
to  escape  as  soon  as  I  could  without  danger;  and  when,  with 
incredible  precipitation,  I  exclaimed:  Just  Heaven!  can  any 
honest  man  live  among  them  ? 

"They  were  powerful;  for  such  was  the  will  of  kings. 
They  assassinated  princes,  and  disturbed  empires  ;  but  this 
was  the  fault  of  those  who  held  the  reins  of  government. 

"That  the  Jesuits  were  the  disturbers  of  kingdoms,  the 
oppressors  of  nations,  the  masters  of  the  world,  I  freely  admit. 

"  Even  in  the  breast  of  childhood  they  are  endeavouring  to 
plant  the  germs  of  war.  Their  system  of  education  seems  to 
be  nothing  more  than  an  experiment  or  trial  of  the  terrible 
commotions  which  they  are  preparing  for  the  whole  world. 
Why  does  so  enlightened  a  government  as  ours  tolerate  them, 
or  suffer  a  single  Frenchman  to  be  brought  up  among  them  ? 

"  Do  you  wish  to  excite  troubles — to  provoke  revolution — to 
produce  the  total  ruin  of  your  country  ?  Call  in  the  Jesuits — 
raise  up  again  the  monks — open  academies,  and  build  magni- 
ficent colleges  for  those  hot-headed  religionists.  Suffer  those 
audacious  priests,  in  their  dictatorial  and  dogmatical  tone,  to 
decide  on  affairs  of  State,  to  attack,  condemn,  and  revile  those 
sacred  laws  which  have  been  rendered  necessary  by  the  mis- 
fortunes of  nations,  and  by  the  progress  of  the  human  mind. 
Suffer  them,  also,  in  their  regret  for  institutions  that  no  longer 
exist,  to  overthrow  and  destroy,  by  their  ridiculous  sophisms, 
the  fundamental  principles  of  society  and  of  government ;  let 
them  sow  the  seeds  of  hatred  and  dissension  in  all  minds,  and, 
farmed  with  a  superior  authority,  let  them  goad  the  people  till 
they  tear  to  pieces  and  destroy  each  other  for  opinions  which 
they  themselves  do  not  understand." 

As  early  as  the  year  1554,  a  judgment  was  publicly  record- 
ed, in  these  terms,  viz.,  that  "  the  Society,  withdrawn  from 
the  obedience  and  submission  due  to  authorities,  unjustly  de- 
prived both  temporal  and  spiritual  lords  of  their  rights,  brought 
discord  into  every  form  of  government,  and  occasioned  among 
the  people  many  subjects  of  complaint,  many  law-suits,  alter- 
cations, schisms,  and  jealousies ;  that  it  appeared  dangerous 
8* 


90  THE   JESUITS. 

though  it  be,  a  tithe  has  not  been  told.  Enough, 
however,  has  been  narrated  to  excite  a  salutary  fear, 
not  unaccompanied  with  moral  indignation  and  hor- 
ror— enough  to  challenge   and  demand  the  most 


to  all  that  concerned  the  faith,  and  calculated  to  disturb  the 
peace  of  the  Church."  Who  struck  oft"  this  bold  outline? 
Not  a  Protestant,  but  an  intensely  Romanish  body — the  Fa- 
culty of  Theology  in  Paris,  in  reply  to  an  inquiry  of  the 
French  Parliament. 

Last  of  all,  we  may  adduce  the  testimony  of  the  Pope  him- 
self. In  the  celebrated  bull  by  which  the  order  was  finally 
suppressed  in  1773,  Clement  XIV.  thus  proceeds:  "  In  vain 
did  they  (that  is,  his  own  predecessors  in  the  See  of  Rome) 
endeavour,  by  salutary  constitutions,  to  restore  peace  to  the 
Church,  as  well  with  respect  to  secular  affairs,  with  which  the 
Company  ought  not  to  have  interfered,  as  with  regard  to  the 
missions  ;  which  gave  rise  to  great  disputes  and  oppositions  on 
the  part  of  the  Company,  with  the  ordinaries  and  communities 
of  all  sorts  in  Europe,  Africa,  and  America,  to  the  great  loss 
of  souls  and  the  great  scandal  of  the  people  :  as  likewise  con- 
cerning the  meaning  and  practice  of  certain  idolatrous  ceremo- 
nies adopted  in  certain  places  :  and  further,  concerning  the  use 
and  explication  of  certain  ?naxims,  which  the  Holy  See  has, 
with  reason,  proscribed  as  scandalous  and  manifestly  contrary 
to  good  morals  ;  from  which  maxims  have  resulted  very  great 
inconveniences  and  great  detriment,  both  in  our  days  and  in 
past  ages — such  as  the  revolts  and  intestine  troubles  in  some 
of  the  Catholic  States."  "  Under  the  reign  of  Clement  XIII. 
the  times  became  more  difficult  and  tempestuous — complaints 
and  quarrels  were  multiplied  on  every  side  ;  in  some  places 
dangerous  seditions  arose,  tumults,  discords,  dissensions, 
scandals,  which,  weakening  or  entirely  breaking  the  bonds  of 
Christian  charity,  excited  the  faithful  to  all  the  rage  of  party 
hatreds  and  enmities.  Desolation  and  danger  grew  to  such 
a  height,  that  the  very  sovereigns,  whose  piety  and  liberality 
towards  the  Company  were  so  well  known  as  to  be  looked 
upon  as  hereditary  in  their  families — we  mean  our  dearly  be- 
loved sons  in  Christ,  the  kings  of  France,  Spain,  Portugal,  and 
Sicily — found  themselves  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  expel- 
ling and  driving  from  their  states,  kingdoms,  and  provinces, 
these  very  companions  of  Jesus  ;  persuaded  that  there  re- 
mained no  other  remedy  for  so  great  evils  ;  and  that  this  step 
was  necessary  in  order  to  prevent  the  Christians  from  rising 
one  against  the  other,  and  from  massacring  each  other  in  the 
very  bosom  of  our  common  mother,  the  Holy  Church." 
Surely  we  have  here,  at  least,  reached  the  very  climax  of 


THE    JESUITS.  91 

searching  scrutiny.  The  picture  is  so  harrowing 
that  the  easy,  and  good-natured,  and  unthinking 
may  be  incredulous.  This  I  cannot  help.  Such,  I 
beseech  to  come  and  see — to  search  the  authentic 
records  of  history,  and  judge  for  themselves.  I  ask 
no  more.  Declamation  has  nothing  to  do  here. 
The  bare,  naked,  literal  facts  of  the  case,  do,  in  mul- 
tiformity of  abomination  and  horror,  vastly  outstrip 
all  the  conceptions  of  the  most  exaggerated  de- 
claimer — all  the  worst  realities  of  the  historic,  yea, 
and  all  the  wildest  fictions  of  the  tragic  muse  ! 
After  the  fullest  investigation  of  the  subject,  I  can 
only  say,  that  my  statement  is  lame,  inadequate,  and 
utterly  disproportioned  to  the  impression  which 
manifold  concurrent  evidences  have  stamped  indeli- 
bly on  my  own  mind.  To  the  principles  of  the  Jesuits 
may,  as  we  have  proved,  be  truly  applied  the  awful 
designations  of  "the  deceivableness  of  unrighteous- 
ness— the  mystery  of  iniquity — the  perfection  of 
devilism."  To  the  practices  of  the  Jesuits  may  not 
inappropriately  be  applied  the  words  of  Sir  James 
Mackintosh,  in  reference  to  the  Reign  of  Terror  in 
France :  "  The  only  series  of  crimes,  perhaps,  in 
history,  which,  in  spite  of  the  common  disposition 
to  exaggerate  extraordinary  facts,  has  been  beyond 
measure  under-rated  in  public  opinion.  Men's 
minds  were  oppressed  by  the  atrocity  and  multitude 
of  crimes  ;  their  humanity  and  their  indolence  took 
refuge  in  scepticism  from  such  an  overwhelming 


authority  on  the  subject.  Let  Romanists  affect  to  hesitate,  if 
they  will,  however  unreasonably,  respecting  our  judgment  of 
the  Jesuits — let  them  affect  to  hesitate,  if  they  will,  however 
more  unreasonably  still,  respecting  the  judgment  of  Popish 
kings,  Popish  judges,  Popish  theologians,  Popish  universities; 
yet  surely,  no  Romanist  can  consistently  call  in  question  the 
deliberate  judgment  of  an  infallible  Pope  ! 


92  THE   JESUITS. 

mass  of  guilt ;  and  the  consequence  was,  that  all 
these  unparalleled  enormities,  though  proved  with 
the  fullest  historical  evidence,  were  at  the  time  only 
half  believed,  and  are  now  scarcely  half  remem- 
bered." 

Strange  and  anomalous  spectacle !  Strange  and 
revolting  infatuation  !  They  call  themselves,  in  a 
distinguishing  sense,  by  the  name  of  Jesus — that 
very  name  which  was  divinely  chosen  to  denote 
that  He  who  bore  it  was  so  called  because  he  was 
"to  save  his  people  from  their  sins"  even  as  he 
himself  "  did  no  sin,  and  in  his  mouth  was  found  no 
guile  ;"  and  yet,  as  if  unconscious  of  the  aggravated 
turpitude  of  the  contrast,  they  forswear  their  own 
moral  independence ;  hold  themselves,  by  oath, 
prepared  to  sin,  at  the  mandate  of  an  erring  mortal ; 
and  labour,  with  all  the  energy  of  untiring  zeal,  and 
all  the  artifices  of  an  exhaustless  subtlety,  in  teach- 
ing the  myriads  of  Adam's  sinful  race  how  to  sin — 
ay,  and  sin,  too,  habitually  and  systematically,  with 
full  and  absolute  impunity  !  With  the  ensigns  of 
peace  and  good-will  blazoned  before  them,  and  songs 
of  freedom  on  their  lips,  these  hosts  go  forth  into  all 
lands,  to  trample  on  the  thrones  of  kings,  to  foment 
insubordination  among  subjects,  to  bind  the  con- 
science in  fetters,  and  stifle  the  first  breath  of  ra- 
tional liberty  !  Holding  the  torch  of  illumination  in 
one  hand,  they  carry  in  the  other  a  multiplex  appa- 
ratus of  devices  and  expedients  for  extinguishing  or 
concealing  "the  true  light  "  which  ought  to  lighten 
every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world  !  Professing 
themselves  disciples  of  the  Anointed  and  the  Cruci- 
fied One,  they  yet  virtually  deny  that  blessed  name, 
deprive  his  cross  of  its  virtue  and  its  meaning,  make 
shipwreck  of  his  faith,  and  drench  the  earth  with 
the  blood  of  his  faithful  martyrs !     Unparalleled, 


THE   JESUITS.  93 

ineffable  effrontery  !  They  gravely  designate  them- 
selves "  a  Society  not  of  men,  but  of  angels,  having 
the  spirit  of  eagles — the  lights  of  mankind,  the  pre- 
ceptors of  all  the  world,  the  reformers  of  manners, 
who  have  banished  vice,  and  made  virtue  to  flou- 
rish ;"  and  then  go  forth,  with  a  thousand  witch- 
ing spells  and  sorceries,  to  garnish  vice  and  embel- 
lish crime — to  canonize  error,  and  consecrate  lies — 
to  convert  profligacy  into  virtue,  and  virtue  into  pro- 
fligacy— to  weaken  the  moral  hatred  of  sin,  deprave 
the  heart,  and  brutalize  the  soul — to  extinguish 
every  vital  principle  of  social  and  spiritual  regene- 
ration, and  disinherit  all  future  ages  of  the  richest 
treasures  of  the  knowledge,  experience,  and  wisdom 
of  the  past ! 


94  THE    JESUITS. 


THE  SUPPRESSION   AND  RESTORATION   OF 
THE  JESUITS. 

But  hark !  a  voice  from  the  Sacred  Oracle  breaks 
upon  the  ear,  saying:  "Pride  goeth  before  destruc- 
tion, and  an  haughty  spirit  before  a  fall."  "I  have 
seen  the  wicked  great  in  power,  and  spreading 
himself  like  a  green  bay  tree.  Yet  he  passed 
away,  and  lo  !  he  was  not :  yea,  I  sought  him,  but 
he  could  not  be  found."  How  strikingly  have 
these  words  been  verified  in  the  marvellous  rise 
and  disastrous  downfal  of  the  Jesuits  !  Wearied, 
at  length,  and  worn  out  by  their  unscrupulous  ra- 
pacity and  all-grasping  ambition — their  treacheries 
and  stratagems — their  seductions  and  briberies — 
their  intrigues  and  cabals — their  laxation  of  public 
morals  and  disturbance  of  social  order — their  fo- 
menting of  seditions,  disloyalties,  and  rebellions — 
their  instigating  of  massacres,  and  parricidal  cruel- 
ties, and  royal  assassinations ; — the  monks  and 
courtiers,  judges  and  civil  magistrates,  churches 
and  public  schools,  princes  and  emperors  of  all 
nations  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  and  America — all, 
all  successively  united  their  efforts  in  sweeping 
them  clean  away,  and  causing  their  institute  to 
perish  from  off  this  earth,  and  from  under  these 
heavens. 

And  when  the  kings  and  senates  and  judges  of 
Europe,  the  chieftains  of  Africa,  the  emperors  of 
Asia,  the  commonwealths  of  America,  were  all 
found  united  successively  in  its  condemnation — 
when  the  civil  rulers  of  all  lands  had  actually  de- 
creed its  destruction  as  a  public  nuisance,  and  the 
civil  subjects  of  all  realms  had  joyfully  assisted  in 
celebrating   its   funeral  obsequies — the  credit,  the 


THE   JESUITS.  95 

honour,  yea,  and  the  very  safety  and  existence,  of 
the  Papacy  itself  seemed  to  demand  from  its  head 
an  act  of  repudiation  or  abolition  too.  Long  and 
anxious  was  the  inquiry,  agonizing  and  terrible  the 
mental  conflict,  on  the  part  of  the  Papal  head, 
Clement  XIV. — "the  virtuous  Ganganelli,"  as  he 
is  usually  termed.  At  last,  however,  his  mind  was 
made  up;  and  in  July,  1773,  the  bull  of  suppres- 
sion was  launched  forth,  under  the  signet  of  "  the 
Infallible."  "After  a  mature  deliberation"  (is  the 
language  of  this  most  important  instrument)  "  we 
do,  out  of  our  certain  knowledge,  and  the  fulness 
of  our  apostolical  power,  suppress  and  abolish  the 
said  Company  ;"  "  abrogate  and  annul  its  statutes, 
rules,  customs,  decrees,  and  constitutions,  even 
though  confirmed  by  oath,  and  approved  by  the 
Holy  See,  or  otherwise."  "  We  declare  all,  and 
all  kind  of  authority — the  general,  the  provincials, 
the  visitors,  and  other  superiors  of  the  said  Society — 
to  be  for  ever  annulled  and  extinguished;"  "so 
that  the  name  of  the  Company  shall  be,  and  is,  for 
ever  extinguished  and  suppressed."  "  Our  will 
and  pleasure  is,  that  these  our  letters  should  for 
ever  and  to  all  eternity  be  valid,  permanent,  and 
efficacious,  have  and  obtain  their  full  force  and 
effect,  and  be  inviolably  observed  by  all  and  every 
ichom  they  do  and  may  concern,  now  or  hereafter, 
in  any  manner  whatever.'''1 

The  decree  was  passed — the  deed  was  done — 
bravely  and  effectually  done.  But,  poor  Clement ! 
— the  concoction  of  it  cost  him  years  of  excruciating 
anguish — the  actual  execution  of  it  cost  him  his 
life.  The  Jesuits  had  their  revenge — a  full  and  fell 
revenge.  For,  who  ever,  from  the  monarch  on  the 
throne  to  the  meanest  of  his  subjects — who  ever 
crossed  their  path,  thwarted  their  designs,  or  de- 
feated  their  measures   with   impunity?     No,  not 


96  THE   JESUITS. 

even  his  Holiness  himself,  whom,  with  blasphem- 
ous adulation,  they  were  often  wont  to  designate 
"  Christ's  Vicar — the  Holy  Father — the  Lord  God 
the  Pope  !"  Clement  knew  all  this,  and  distinctly 
anticipated  nothing  short  of  death  as  the  price  or 
penalty  of  his  daring  magnanimity.  Immediately 
on  signing  the  instrument  of  suppression,  he  coolly 
remarked:  " The  suppression  is  accomplished.  I 
do  not  repent  of  it,  having  only  resolved  on  it  after 
examining  and  weighing  every  thing,  and  because 
I  thought  it  necessary  for  the  Church ;  and  if  it 
were  not  done,  I  would  do  it  now  ;  but  this  sup- 
pression will  be  my  death."  These  words  were 
soon  proved  to  be  fatally  prophetic.  On  the  walls 
of  St.  Peter's  a  significant  warning  shortly  after- 
wards appeared,  in  the  form  of  a  pasquinade,  which 
Clement  himself  interpreted  to  mean  :  "  The  Holy 
See  will  be  vacant  in  September."  Before  Sep- 
tember, in  order  to  verify  the  oracle,  several  attempts 
were  actually  made  to  destroy  him  by  poison,  but 
failed.  In  June,  the  following  year,  (1774,)  how- 
ever, he  was  suddenly  cut  off — exclaiming  on  his 
death-bed,  in  allusion  to  the  secret  cause  :  '•  I  am 
going  to  eternity ;  and  I  know  for  what."  His 
throat,  stomach,  and  intestines,  we  are  assured  by 
the  eye-witnesses  of  the  tragic  scene,  "  were  in  a 
state  of  the  highest  inflammation  ;  and  immediately 
after  death  his  whole  body  turned  black,  his  flesh 
fell  off,  and  he  became  so  offensive,  although  re- 
markably thin,  that  it  was  impossible  to  approach 
him." 

In  other  words,  there  could  be  no  doubt  at  all  that 
the  Pope  died  by  poison ;  still  less  could  there  be 
any  doubt,  from  the  entire  concurrent  circumstances 
of  the  case,  that  the  Jesuits  were  the  administrators 
of  the  fatal  potion,  and  that  his  holiness  was  the  vic- 
tim of  their  vengeance.     Thus  did  they  "  close  their 


THE   JESUITS.  97 

first  career  with  a  crowning  deed,  worthy  of  their 
iniquitous  principles,  and  their  former  execrable  con- 
duct ;"  and  thus  appeared  to  perish,  perish  for  ever, 
the  most  terrific  system  of  lawless  despotism  which 
ever  scourged  the  earth,  or  strove  to  convert  its 
hamlets  and  its  palaces  into  a  second  Pandemonium. 
No  wonder  though  the  world,  which  had  groaned 
under  its  "disastrous  twilight,"  should  rejoice  !  No 
wonder  though  one  wide  and  universal  shout  of  ju- 
bilee should  be  heard  among  the  nations  !  No  won- 
der though  the  wise  and  the  good  of  all  kindreds 
and  tribes,  while  yet  smarting  under  the  scars  and 
the  gashes  which  it  had  inflicted,  and  rejoicing  in 
its  downfal  as  the  triumph  of  justice,  mercy,  and 
humanity,  should  proclaim,  as  with  one  voice,  that 
he  who  endeavoured  any  more  to  "let  it  loose  upon 
society,  must  be  chargeable  with  high  treason 
against  the  common  interests  and  happiness  of  his 
species !" 

But  time,  the  mighty  leveller,  rolled  on ;  and 
with  it  brought  its  usual  cycle  of  change.  With 
the  extinction  of  the  system,  the  memory  of  its  in- 
trinsic evil  and  dangerous  excesses  had  gradually 
passed  into  oblivion  too  ;  and  ere  the  generation  in 
the  ears  of  whose  youth  and  infancy  its  death-knell 
was  heard  to  sound,  had  wholly  quitted  the  stage 
of  time,  it  was  doomed  to  listen  to  the  tidings  of  its 
sudden  revival  and  unexpected  re-appearance  in 
fulness  of  strength  and  renovated  energy. 

It  is  not  for  us  to  reconcile  Papal  inconsistencies 
and  downright  contradictions.  We  can  only  won- 
der at  the  total  abnegation  of  reason  and  common 
sense — the  utter  and  absolute  dementedness  which 
the  Papacy,  at  every  turn,  exacts  from  its  votaries 
as  the  sole  substratum  of  their  faith,  and  the  indis- 
pensable condition  of  their  allegiance.  Here  is  a 
precious  specimen  !  A  system  which  one  infallible 
9 


98  THE   JESUITS. 

had  pronounced  to  be  "  scandalous,  and  manifestly 
contrary  to  good  morals,"  is,  by  another,  revived,  as 
essential  to  the  salvation  of  holy  mother  Church  ! 
A  system  which  one  infallible  had  repudiated  and 
cast  out  as  a  loathsome  and  deadly  thing — positively 
interdicting  any  from  intermeddling  therewith,  either 
now  or  hereafter — was  soon  caught  up,  fondled,  and 
endearingly  cherished  by  another  !  A  system  which 
one  infallible  had  sentenced  to  be  suppressed,  abo- 
lished, and  extinguished  for  ever — ay,  and  as  if  that 
were  not  explicit  enough— -for  ever  and  to  all  eternity 
—is  restored,  within  less  than  half  a  century,  to  the 
full  plenitude  of  its  peculiar  rights  and  privileges,  by 
another  !  As  if  in  the  Popish  calendar  "  for  ever" 
and  "all  eternity,"  meant  only  a  brief  period  of  time, 
extending  from  21st  July,  1773,  to  7th  August,  1814 ! 
But,  be  that  as  it  may,  the  fact  is  undoubted,  that  in 
an  ill-omened  hour,  and  as  if  in  derision  of  the  fig- 
ment of  assumed  infallibility,  Pope  Pius  VII.,  in 
1814,  did  reverse  and  abrogate  the  decree  of  his  in- 
fallible predecessor  in  1773  !  In  his  bull  of  restora- 
tion, he  employs  these  striking  and  memorable 
words : — "  We  should  deem  ourselves  guilty  of  a 
great  crime  towards  God,  if,  amidst  these  dangers 
of  the  Christian  republic,  we  neglected  the  aids 
which  the  special  providence  of  God  has  put  at  our 
disposal ;  and  if,  placed  in  the  bark  of  Peter,  tossed 
and  assailed  by  continual  storms,  we  refused  to  em- 
ploy the  vigorous  and  experienced  rowers  who 
volunteer  their  services  in  order  to  break  the  waves 
of  a  sea  which  threaten  every  moment  shipwreck 
and  death." 

Pie  then  proceeds,  "  in  virtue  of  the  plenitude  of 
apostolic  power,  and  with  perpetual  validity,"  to 
decree  the  restoration  of  the  order,  with  all  neces- 
sary powers,  that  all  States  "may  freely  and  law- 
fully receive  all  who  desire  to  be  admitted"  into  it ; 


THE   JESUITS.  9& 

with  power  granted  to  the  members  "freely  and 
lawfully  to  apply  themselves  to  the  education  of 
youth,  to  direct  colleges  and  seminaries,  to  hear 
confessions,  to  preach,  and  administer  the  sacra- 
ments." And  not  satisfied  with  all  this,  the  bull 
is  directed  to  be  "  inviolably  observed,  according  to 
its  form  and  tenor,  in  all  time  coming ;  and  never  to 
be  submitted  to  the  judgment  or  revision  of  any 
judge,  with  whatever  power  he  may  be  clothed  ; 
declaring  null  and  of  no  effect  any  encroachment  on 
those  regulations,  either  knowingly  or  from  igno- 
rance ;"  and  finally  asseverating,  that  "  no  one  be 
permitted  to  infringe,  or,  by  an  audacious  temerity, 
to  oppose,  any  part  of  that  ordinance  ;  and  that 
should  any  one  take  it  upon  him  to  attempt  it,  he 
would  thereby  incur  the  indignation  of  Almighty 
God,  and  of  the  holy  apostles,  Peter  and  Paul." 

Here,  then,  is  the  bark  of  St.  Peter  launched  forth 
anew,  to  buffet  all  storms  and  bear  down  all  opposi- 
tion, under  the  guidance  of  "  the  vigorous  and  ex- 
perienced rowers"  who  have  once  more  "volunteered 
their  services."  And  "  vigorous  and  experienced 
rowers  they  truly  are,"  as  an  anonymous  home 
journalist  has  emphatically  remarked,  "  if  the  bark 
of  St.  Peter  is  to  be  conducted  through  a  sea  of 
blood — if  the  Pope  really  design  to  follow  the  track 
of  a  Gregory  or  a  Hildebrand,  and  wade  through 
slaughter  to  the  throne  of  bigotry  and  mental  despo- 
tism !"  For  what  is  the  first  principle  of  this  cele- 
brated order  ? — "  That  Jesuitism  is  to  be  main- 
tained at  the  expense  of  society  at  large."  And 
what  its  second  ? — "  That  the  end  sanctifies  the 
means"  Who,  then,  can  deny  that  almost  all- 
powerful  and  ubiquitous  institutions,  based  upon 
such  principles,  and  saturated  throughout  with  the 
spirit  of  such  principles,  fairly  threaten  once  more 
to  throw  open  the  flood-gates  of  bigotry  and  intole- 


100  the  ;:r    75 

— to  roll  back  the  swellir  g  1 
ral.  and  social  improvement — to  nullify  the  sacred 
uf  conscience —  -       _ 

civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  shroud 
mantle    :  ..  :  r  arful  and  e ver-thick- 
_  i 

:een  introduced 
:...::.-  |  gr  the  :::is  that  bind  : 

victims  — insinua::   jits 

he  very  bosom  of  our  Pr: 

familief —     ;         _    tap    delude    the     "eat    and   the 

i     _  m  5.  and  dreams 

of  tolerance,  an 7  .        2d  striving  to  insert 

ge  ring  wedge   into   the    chinks 

sea    ::"    Hindu    soc.r     — ;    ::    not  high 

we   should    awake,  and    arise   out   of 

Is  it  not  high   time   that   we   should   be 

re-burnishing  our  spiritual  wt  i  re-invest- 

whoie  armour  of  God?" 

might  :f  a  power 

ac    ::.;  —  va  nowhere  wh:_. 

I  everywhere  whaHy  fell — it  may  seem  rain 
contend, 
would,  if  we  went  forth  in  our   own  name  and 

Knowing  that 
of  man,  but  by 

5 

3  bt  down,  we  go  forth, 
not  as  principals,  but  as  hearty,  though  unworthy 

test.     We 
go  forth  u  to  the  help  of  the  Lord,  to  the  hek 
Lord  a  -  **  he  needs 

i  our  duty."*     W«  go  forth,  in 
trance  that  our  weakness  will  only 

.1  our  imperfec- 

And  who  can  teil  but  the 

humble  age.:;     .     s  uch  expositor}*  services  as  (he 


THE    JESUITS.  101 

present  may  be  blessed  from  on  high  as  one  of  the 
instrumentalities  in  defeating  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness, and  gaining  a  spiritual  conquest  over  the  na- 
tions ?  Without  his  blessing,  all  agency,  however 
potent,  must  prove  like  the  "bruised  reed;" 
with  his  blessing,  all  agency,  however  impotent, 
must  prove  like  the  resistless  thunder-bolt.  Oh ! 
how  one  breath  of  his  almighty  Spirit  would 
scatter  to  the  winds  of  heaven  all  the  devices  and 
policies,  whether  of  wicked  angels  or  of  wicked 
men.  When  commissioned  by  him,  a  swarm  of 
feeble  flies  sufficed  to  mortify  the  pride  of  Egypt's 
haughty  potentate  !  When  commissioned  by  him, 
a  few  innocuous  undulations  of  the  air,  from  trum- 
pets and  broken  pitchers,  routed  and  put  to  flight 
the  countless  hosts  of  Midian !  When  commis- 
sioned by  him,  a  small,  smooth,  round  pebble  from 
the  brook,  flung  by  a  stripling's  arm,  laid  prostrate 
in  the  dust  the  mighty  champion  who  daringly  de- 
fied the  armies  of  the  living  God  ! 

What,  then — would  I  advocate  any  fhing  like  in- 
tolerance or  persecution?  God  forbid  !  While  I 
abominate  the  system  of  Jesuitism,  I  can  love  the 
souls  of  all  who  are  enslaved  by  it,  whether  its 
authors  or  its  victims.  The  system  I  would  labour 
to  destroy,  by  all  legitimate  weapons  of  exposure, 
and  argument,  and  reprehension,  and  earnest  ap- 
peal ;  the  persons  of  the  men  I  would  not  hurt — 
no,  not  even  touch  a  hair  of  their  heads.  I  would 
not,  in  the  mistaken  zeal  of  a  disciple  of  old — a  zeal 
so  timeously  rebuked  by  the  disciple's  Master — I 
would  not,  if  I  could,  call  down  fire  from  heaven  to 
consume  even  the  adversaries  of  truth  and  righteous- 
ness— oh,  no !  I  have  not  so  learned  Christ.  In 
imitation  of  his  spirit,  I  would  strive,  if  I  only  knew 
how,  to  go  about  continually  doing  them  all  the 
good  which  they  might  allow  me  to  do.  And,  if 
9* 


102  THE   JESUITS. 

all  effort  failed,  I  would,  in  imitation  of  the  divine 
Redeemer,  endeavour  to  betake  myself  to  prayer. 
It  was  amid  his  dying  agonies,  and  in  behalf  of  his 
cruel  persecutors,  that  he  breathed  forth  the  sublime 
and  soul-thrilling  intercession  :  "  Father,  forgive 
them  ;  for  they  know  not  what  they  do."  Moved 
by  so  divine  and  touching  an  example,  ought  we 
not  fervently  to  pray,  alike  for  the  conscious  authors 
and  the  unconscious  victims  of  a  system  that  is 
winged  with  pestilence  and  death  ?  And  what 
should  be  the  burden  of  our  prayer?  Surely  that 
the  unconscious  victims  might  be  speedily  delivered 
from  the  delusions  under  which  they  are  now  held 
captive  and  spell-bound ;  surely  that  the  conscious 
authors,  whose  danger  must  be  imminent,  and  excite 
alarm  in  proportion  to  their  consciousness  of  guilt, 
might  have  their  ears  unstopped,  and  their  deafness 
removed,  so  that  they  could  hear  ! — that  the  scales 
of  thick  darkness  might  be  made  to  drop  from  their 
spiritual  vision,  and  they  were  made  to  see  ! — that 
the  Lord  might,  in  undeserved  mercy,  be  pleased  to 
convert  their  souls,  however  stoutly  they  may  have 
hitherto  resisted  or  despised  His  arm  who  wields 
the  thunder  !  In  this  way  only  would  we  strive  to 
overcome  evil  with  good.  In  this  way  only  would  we 
strive  to  revenge  ourselves  for  any  malice  or  treachery 
that  may  have  been  exhibited — even  by  heaping 
coals  of  fire,  in  loving-kindness,  upon  their  heads. 

It  wras  the  dying  expression  of  one  of  Scotland's 
most  celebrated  martyrs — the  Marquis  of  Argyll — 
an  expression  which  has  since  thrilled  through 
many  a  Scottish  heart,  and  lighted  up  the  flame  of 
a  martyr's  zeal  in  many  a  Scottish  bosom :  "  I  die 
with  a  heart-hatred  of  Popery."  In  like  manner, 
whilst  I  would  have  you  to  be  inspired  with  love  for 
the  souls  of  the  men,  I  would  have  you  to  cherish  a 
never-dying  hatred  of  their  principles.     I  would 


THE   JESUITS.  103 

have  you  to  go  forth  from  these  walls,  this  night, 
ready  to  take  up  the  mantle  dropped  by  the  noble 
martyr,  and,  animated  with  a  double  portion  of  his 
spirit,  saying :  "  I  live,  and,  by  the  blessing  of  God, 
am  determined  to  die,  with  a  heart-hatred  of  Pope- 
ry ;  and,  above  all,  with  a  heart-hatred  of  Jesuit- 
ism, which  is  Popery  in  its  richest  blossom  and 
ripest  fruitage." 

Suffer  not,  oh !  suffer  not  yourselves,  I  beseech 
you,  to  be  captivated  and  ensnared  by  the  siren 
song,  that  Popery  is  not  now  what  it  once  was — 
that  it  is  wholly  altered  in  its  features.  That  Pope- 
ry may  be — that  it  has  been  heretofore — checked, 
controlled,  and  limited  by  the  overbearing  pressure 
of  external  circumstances,  is  undoubted  ;  but  I  do 
hereby,  this  night,  solemnly  protest  and  proclaim,  ia 
the  sight  of  heaven  and  of  earth,  my  own  inflexible 
conviction,  that  Popery  is  unchanged  and  un- 
changeable in  its  spirit  and  purposes — that  it  wants 
only  the  opportunity  and  the  power  now  to  lighten 
up  every  land  with  the  blazing  stake,  and  drench 
every  shore  with  the  blood  of  martyrs.  It  was  not 
in  figure,  or  in  envy,  or  with  any  hostile  intention, 
but  with  feelings  akin  to  those  of  exultation  and 
triumph,  that  a  recent  author  thus  emphatically  ex- 
pressed himself:  "Evidence  has  satisfied  us  more 
potently  than  ever,  that  Romanism  has  in  it  a  power 
and  energy  which  (humanly  speaking)  is  irrepres- 
sible ;  that  it  resembles  a  vegetable  seed,  which 
may  be  buried  in  a  mummy-case  for  three  or  four 
thousand  years,  and  yet,  if  dropped  into  the  ground, 
would  incontinently  spring  up  in  vigorous  develop- 
ment ;  that  what  was  said  of  the  royal  strumpet  of 
Egypt  may  almost  be  said  of  the  Church  of 
Rome: — 

'  Age  cannot  wither  her,  nor  custom  stale 
Her  infinite  variety.'  " 


104  THE    JESUITS. 

It  is,  then,  with  no  ghostly  shade,  with  no  fleeting 
or  unsubstantial  phantasm,  that  we  are  called  on  to 
contend.  Oh  !  no ;  it  is  with  the  realest,  the  most 
tremendous  power  that  has  yet  manifested  its  pre- 
sence on  the  stage  of  time — a  power  whose  past 
history  well  entitles  us  to  say  of  it,  that 

M  Black  it  stood  as  night — 
Fierce  as  ten  furies — terrible  as  hell." 

Or,  seizing  the  illustration  of  the  sovereign  Pon- 
tiff himself,  let  us  remember  that  he  anticipates  and 
distinctly  speaks  of  an  approaching  season  of  storms 
and  tempests,  with  their  sable  retinue  of  waves, 
and  shipwreck,  and  death.  And  we,  too,  antici- 
pate, though  in  another  sense,  a  season  of  gloom — 
a  night  of  storms,  such  as  has  not  yet  been  realized 
since  the  world  began.  Even  now  may  be  dis- 
cerned the  indubitable,  signs  and  presages  of  coming 
trouble — the  horizon,  now  lurid,  Avith  gathering 
clouds  and  an  unbroken  gloom — now  streaked  and 
vivified  with  strange  meteors  and  lightning  splen- 
dours ;  the  cloudless  noon,  now  disturbed  by  the 
rolling  of  mysterious  thunders — now  darkened  with 
the  shadows  of  a  portentous  twilight ;  the  air  and 
all  ocean,  now  seized  with  a  freezing,  unnatural 
stillness,  and  now  agitated  and  convulsed  with  ex- 
plosive shocks,  as  from  the  invisible  elements  of  the 
nether  world ;  at  shining  eve,  the  night  suddenly 
ascending  without  a  star,  to  give  place  to  the  up- 
risen day,  which  seems  but  a  paler  night ;  while 
the  sun,  the  glorious  sun,  is  often  seen  to  with- 
draw— 

"  Not  as  he  wont,  with  clear  and  golden  fires: 
Bewildered  in  a  labyrinth  of  haze, 
His  orb,  redoubled  with  discoloured  rays, 
Struggles  and  vanishes ;  along  the  deep, 
With  slow  array,  expanding  vapours  creep, 
Whose  folds,  in  twilight's  yellow  glare  uncurl'd, 
Present  the  dreams  of  an  unreal  world — 


THE    JESUITS.  105 

Islands  in  air  suspended,  marching  ghosts 
Of  armies,  shapes  of  castles,  winding  coasts, 
Navies  at  anchor,  mountains,  woods,  and  streams, 
Where  all  is  strange,  and  nothing  what  it  seems  ; 
Till  deep  involving  gloom,  without  a  spark 
Of  star,  moon,  meteor — desolately  dark — 
Seals  up  the  vision." 

It  is  amid  such  signs  and  portents  of  a  gathering 
storm,  that  shall  soon  burst  in  fury  over  the  nations, 
that  the  bark  of  Peter,  we  are  assured  by  the  sove- 
reign Pontiff,  has  been  launched  forth  to  course  over 
the  ocean  of  time.  But  can  this  be  the  genuine 
bark  of  Peter  which  has  been  so  launched  forth,  and 
to  which  we  are  so  earnestly  invited  to  intrust  our 
spiritual  and  everlasting  interests  ?  What !  this  the 
bark  of  Peter,  the  holy  and  devoted  apostle,  which 
is  freighted,  not  with  goodly  or  wholesome  commo- 
dities, but  with  sorceries  to  enchant,  and  deadly 
poisons  to  infatuate  and  destroy,  the  souls  of  men ! 
— this  the  bark  of  Peter,  the  holy  and  devoted 
martyr,  which  has  been  committed  to  the  pilotage 
and  management  of  "  vigorous  and  experienced 
rowers,"  whose  sole  vocation,  for  three  hundred 
years,  has  been  to  prowl  along  every  shore,  hoisting 
false  signals  to  allure  the  unwary  to  the  shoals  and 
quicksands  on  which  they  must  inevitably  perish  ; 
and  extinguishing  each  beacon-blaze  that  would 
have  guided  the  tempest-tossed  mariner  to  a  haven 
of  safety  and  of  rest !  Rather,  must  not  this  be  the 
armed  bark  of  a  ruthless  pirate,  whose  pennons  are 
red  with  the  blood  of  innumerable  victims,  and 
whose  rowers  "grin  horribly  a  ghastly  smile"  as 
they  coolly  gaze  at  the  havoc  and  desolation  which 
they  spread  all  around  ?  Then,  let  each  one  of  us 
exclaim :  "  O  my  soul,  come  not  thou  into  their 
secret ;  unto  their  assembly,  mine  honour,  be  not 
thou  united !" 

But,  bounding  athwart  the  fearful  gloom,  and 


106  THE   JESUITS. 

steadily  poised  on  the  foaming  billows — behold ! 
behold  !  another  bark  appears  full  in  view  !  It  is 
the  ark  of  the  everlasting  covenant ! — with  the  flag 
of  mercy  waving  from  on  high,  and  the  lamp  of 
salvation  shining  underneath — with  the  bread  of 
life  and  the  waters  of  immortality  for  her  burden — 
with  the  ordinances  of  grace  for  her  expanded  sails, 
and  the  Spirit's  influences  for  the  gales  that  fill 
them — with  patriarchs,  and  prophets,  and  apostles, 
for  her  rowers,  and  the  great  Angel  of  the  Covenant 
himself  for  her  commander  and  helmsman  !  Thither, 
thither,  then,  let  us  speed  and  make  haste ;  for  the 
vessel  is  chartered  for  Immandel's  land,  and  into  it 
all,  all  are  freely  invited  to  enter,  "  without  money 
and  without  price."  Once  caught  up  into  its  bosom, 
we  shall,  in  spite  of  the  rage  of  earth  and  hell,  and 
the  fury  of  contending  elements,  reach  in  safety  the 
happy  shore — where,  with  the  countless  throng 
that  have  been  delivered  out  of  great  tribulation,  and. 
have  "  their  robes  washed  and  made  white  in  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb,  we  shall  hunger  no  more,  neither 
thirst  any  more  ;  neither  shall  the'  sun  light  on  us, 
nor  any  heat ;  for  the  Lamb  which  is  in  the  midst 
of  the  throne  shall  feed  us,  and  shall  lead  us  unto 
living  fountains  of  waters ;  and  God  shall  wipe 
away  all  tears  from  our  eyes." 


THE   JESUITS.  107 

N.B. — From  the  very  nature  of  the  subject  dis- 
cussed in  the  preceding  pages,  it  is  clear  that  the 
real  value  of  the  discussion  must  depend  on  its 
facts,  rather  than  on  its  reasonings.  In  treating 
of  such  a  theme,  the  main  desideratum  is,  a  collec- 
tion of  varied  and  authentic  facts.  To  collect  such 
facts,  therefore,  from  every  available  source,  and 
arrange  them  in  an  orderly  and  digested  form,  has 
been  the  chief  end  aimed  at  by  the  author.  Refe- 
rences to  authorities  have  not  been  supplied,  nor 
the  grounds  of  preferring  the  testimonies  of  some  to 
those  of  others,  as  these  are  so  multitudinous  that 
the  bare  mention  of  them  would  swell  the  work 
(already  rather  large)  to  an  utterly  disproportionate 
bulk.  Of  this,  however,  the  reader  may  be  assured, 
that  not  a  single  fact  is  stated,  from  beginning  to 
end,  without  what  appeared  to  the  mind  of  the 
author  an  ample  sufficiency  of  evidence  in  favour 
of  its  authenticity. 


THE    END. 


STEREOTYPED    BY   L.    JOHKSOK    Si,  CO. 
PHILADELPHIA. 


Printed  by  W.  S.  Martien. 


I mtit  'iTi'|T|T  TH'I'ITr  TIN1  ' 


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